BREADCRUMB
CJEU Case Law
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Raffinerie Mediterranee (ERG) SpA v Ministero dello Sviluppo economico (Cases C-379/08 and C-380/08; and Case C-378/08, 2010)
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Operation of many petrochemical companies in Priolo Gargallo Region of Sicily since 1960s
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Remediation included removal of two metres of contaminated sediment from Augusta roadstead (sheltered anchorage), construction of a hydraulic dyke to contain groundwater, and construction of a physical barrier along the shoreline next to companies’ facilities
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ECJ concluded
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Member States may establish a rebuttable presumption of a causal link between contamination and the operator’s activities if plausible evidence of a link exists
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Evidence to establish the link may include location of the operator’s facility near a contaminated site, and correlation between substances used by the operator and those identified at the contaminated site
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Operator may rebut the presumption by showing that its activities did not cause the contamination
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Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare v Fipa Group Srl (Case C-534/13, 2015)
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Case concerned requirements to remediate several severely contaminated sites in Massa Carrara, northern Italy
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Contamination caused by Montedison Srl. (now Edison S.p.A.), which subsequently sold the sites to three companies
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Sites were designated as ‘sites of national interest’ under Italian law
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CJEU concluded that the ELD does not preclude Italian law that does not require landowners to remediate the contamination on their land unless they caused it
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Italian law requires such landowners only to reimburse a competent authority for the costs incurred by them in remediating the land up to the market value of the remediated land
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