Presented by

Exponent Webinar:
Implementing the Environmental
Liability Directive

The EU introduced the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) in 2004, and most Member States have now transposed it into their national legislation. The ELD has been incorporated in a range of ways across Europe, but the fundamental scientific needs are the same throughout. The legislation incorporates the "polluter pays" principle, the implementation of which requires correctly identifying polluters and ensuring that they remediate the damage they have caused, not what other potentially responsible parties may have caused or what was present beforehand.

Environmental forensics provides the toolbox to assist in many of these aspects: fingerprinting of releases, age dating, reconstructing environmental histories, and background reconstruction. New methods of quantifying environmental damage and scaling remediation that have rarely been used in the EU, but that have a strong presence within environmental damage legislation in the USA, will be applied under the ELD.

This webinar will cover:

• What is the historical background of the directive, and how have Member States implemented it?
• What are the key aspects and responsibilities within the ELD, with particular reference to the UK regulations?
• What is the science required by the various sections of the legislation? How can we identify the origin and timing of a spill, the degree to which resulting chemical concentrations exceed the background condition, and the level of responsibility in cases of multiple sources?
• How do we assess the extent of environmental damage caused, so that the appropriate amount and type of remediation is performed? Would natural recovery be the best option?
• What are some of the unknown factors, or where is there ambiguity in the regulations that may require clarification?

Speakers:

Stephen Michael Mudge, Ph.D.
Managing Scientist, Environmental and Earth Sciences

Nicholas W. Gard, Ph.D.
Managing Scientist, EcoSciences

Click here to register.

There is no charge for this webinar.