Federal Act
on the Protection of the Environment
(Environmental Protection Act, EPA)

¹ The can­tons shall en­sure that the fol­low­ing sites are re­medi­ated if such sites lead to harm­ful ef­fects or nuis­ances or if there is a clear risk that such ef­fects may arise:

a.

land­fills and oth­er sites pol­luted by waste (pol­luted sites);

b.

pub­lic chil­dren's play­grounds and pub­lic green spaces where the soil is con­tam­in­ated with en­vir­on­ment­ally haz­ard­ous sub­stances and where small chil­dren reg­u­larly play.⁶⁹

^1bis The can­tons may provide fin­an­cial sup­port for re­medi­at­ing private chil­dren's play­grounds and private gar­dens if:

a.

the soils of these sites are con­tam­in­ated with en­vir­on­ment­ally haz­ard­ous sub­stances and young chil­dren reg­u­larly play on them; and

b.

these loc­a­tions lead to harm­ful ef­fects or nuis­ances or there is a clear risk that such ef­fects will arise.⁷⁰

² The can­tons shall draw up a re­gister of pol­luted sites that is ac­cess­ible to the pub­lic.

³ They may in­vest­ig­ate, mon­it­or and re­medi­ate pol­luted sites them­selves or in­struct third parties to do so if:

a.

this is re­quired to avert im­min­ent ef­fects;

b.

the per­son li­able is un­able to ar­range for the meas­ures to be car­ried out; or

c.

the per­son li­able fails to act des­pite be­ing re­minded and al­lowed time to do so.

⁴The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may is­sue reg­u­la­tions on the need for re­medi­ation and on the ob­ject­ives and ur­gency of re­medi­ation for sites in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1.⁷¹