Who has the liability to pay for old pollution and what are the obstacles? : A case study of two Swedish municipalities

Abstract: The study investigates what the EU and Swedish legislation indicate about pollution, how the polluter-pays principle is used, and how the legislation has been applied in two Swedish municipalities. The purpose of the study was to identify if the legislation is a support or a barrier regarding accountability and financing of remediation of old pollution areas, and how polluted areas are handled in practice.The case study investigation was done through a literature study in combination with 7 respondent interviews with representatives from two County Administrative Boards, two municipalities, one consulting company, one private company and one university researcher. The results show that the most explanatory factors of why old pollution still remains are the ambition and will of all actors in the society regarding priority lists and procrastination, and inertia between different actors in society. Other explanatory factors are demarcation difficulties when assessing liability, lack of competence in assessments of liability and justified extent, lack of investigation resources, and lack of money. Improvement options were found in the Swedish application model and in the cooperation model between the actors in society. This demonstrates that the explanations found for why old pollution still remains are attributed less to legislation and more to other factors.