National
Bund/Länder-Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bodenschutz (LABO)
The LABO is a working committee and advisory board of the Conference of Environment Ministers (Umweltministerkonferenz, UMK) in which the highest authorities responsible for soil protection at state and federal level work together. In particular, LABO strives for uniform enforcement of soil protection law and submits proposals for its further development. The regional states take turns chairing the LABO steering committee. The LABO currently has the following three committees:
- No. 1: Recht (law) committee (BORA)
- No. 2: Vorsorgender Bodenschutz (soil stewardship) committee (BOVA)
- No. 3: Altlasten (contaminated sites) committee (ALA)
The contaminated-sites committee (ALA)
The ALA focuses on the technical principles and enforcement issues concerning identification, investigation, assessment, monitoring, cleanup and follow-up measures for the following:
- Areas of potential concern
- Potentially contaminated sites and deleterious changes of the soil
- Contaminated sites
The regional states take turns chairing the ALA.
Ingenieurtechnischer Verband für Altlastenmanagement und Flächenrecycling e.V. (ITVA)
The engineering association for the management of contaminated sites and land recycling known as ITVA was founded in Berlin in 1990 as a politically and economically unaffiliated organization. The initative came from committed site cleanup experts from both eastern and western Germany, backed by the then environmental minister Klaus Töpfer. ITVA seeks to (a) promote cross-disciplinary dialogue among experts and interested parties; (b) aggregate competencies in the field of follow-up soil conservation measures; and (c) point the way to viable solutions for the numerous problems related to management of contaminated sites and land recycling. The UBA is an associate member of ITVA.