SAGTA is 10 Years Old

This article appeared in the Summer 2005 Edition of CL:AIRE View The Soil and Groundwater Technology Association (SAGTA) celebrated its 10th birthday in June. SAGTA's incoming Chairman and Deputy Chairman, Colette Grundy and Mark Jones are joined by past Chairman, Roger Tollervey and Secretary, Doug Laidler in summarising the Association's contributions to good practice and policy over the last decade and its plans for its future role in coming years. In June 1995, a group of companies representing a significant proportion of the UK's industry landholding held its first meeting as The Soil and Groundwater Technology Association - SAGTA. Formed in 1994 with the support of the Contaminated Land and Liabilities Division of the then DoE, SAGTA represents many of the major industrial sector landholders. Our Members share a common culture of active management of their own landholdings and, crucially, all possessing in-depth and extensive knowledge of the issues. By bringing together this expertise, SAGTA's objective has been to share the best of techniques and experience from our various sectors to address the often complex and emerging technical issues of managing land contamination as effectively as possible. As such, we aim to assist the process of developing policy and national good practice. Now entering its second decade, SAGTA's aims have remained remarkably consistent. Whilst we have pursued a programme that welcomes wide input from the broadest spectrum of the contaminated land community - regulators, policy makers, practitioners and problem holders, SAGTA has not sought to display a high public profile. However, a glance at the breadth of coverage of our 18 Members who represent chemicals, petrochemicals, defence, energy, nuclear, water, minerals, waste and regeneration sectors, with access to international expertise will reinforce our key aim of acting as a respected and informed contributor from industry as a whole. Our first 10 years have seen many significant and enduring contributions: We were one of the original drivers and funders behind the development and formation of CLAIRE, now firmly in place as a key component of UK practice. CL:AIRE's Chairman as well as two Members of its Board are drawn from our Membership. We have been an active respondent to consultations on a large array of national initiatives lead by Defra and Environment Agency that have embraced many of the facets of management of land contamination. These we continue to support. Productive links have been developed with many national bodies. These include Defra, DoH, Environment Agency, SEPA, ODPM, NII and more recently the Cabinet Office's Better Regulation Team. We have now convened over 40 key Workshops that have acted as a regular framework at quarterly intervals throughout the year. These help to contribute by bringing together these bodies, together with industry specialists and members of professional bodies to identify gaps, technical viewpoints and areas where the land management community, and SAGTA in particular, can contribute to advancing good practice and policy. Local authority links have also been developed over recent years. These now number some 30 contacts through specific links with representatives at our various Workshops. In addition, we have regular participation with both the NSCA's Contaminated Land Working Group and CIEH and we remain keen to further consolidate and develop these local authority contacts in the future. SAGTA has also driven specific research initiatives via our Member organisations which our work on PPC baseline studies and management of small sites via the current CLUSTER initiative are indicative of our contributions. As we move forward, our aim is to retain our role as a measured voice from industry that is respected for its authoritative, high level contributions both in terms of technical rigour and in the context of measured views on impacts on business. Our future challenges must include the encouragement and acceleration of the use of sustainable remediation technologies. We will also be aiming to consolidate and stimulate our current involvement in the practical integration of legislation relating to water and land contamination and waste whilst maintaining our regular dialogues with policy makers and regulatory authorities at both national and local level. Enquiries for industry landholders on the issues to which SAGTA contributes are always welcomed and many of our Members will always happy to expand on the benefits they themselves draw from Membership of the Association.

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