You may need fill for land rehabilitation, landscaping, and renovations among other projects. For this reason, before accepting any fill on your property, you need to understand that contaminated fill is harmful to the environment and human health, and as such, you'd be responsible for any fines and clean-up costs. Erosion and spillage of clean fill over habitat areas and watercourses can also be hazardous. You could also be accepting illegal fill without knowing. For these reasons, before you accept fill onto your property, you need to have knowledge on the following information.

Is the Filling Permitted?

To avoid a case of illegal waste dumping, confirm from your local council whether accepting fill is permitted. If so, find out all the approvals that you need. Approval from the council is important because it ensures that there are effective control measures of the fill in place and that you won't be having contaminated fill on land. The council will also help you identify a suitable area for the location of the fill so that you don't have it in a place where it could pollute the watercourses or cause harm to human life and the environment.

Is The Fill Contaminated?

Your supplier should prove that the fill he or she is bringing is uncontaminated. You can always take samples and send them to the relevant laboratories for inspection. Otherwise, you should ask your supplier for the original laboratory results to ascertain that the fill isn't contaminated. In case your suppliers give misleading information concerning their fill, you need to report them to your local council and other relevant authorities.

What Are Some Suitable Fill Materials That You Can Accept?

To prevent adverse effects on human health and the environment, there are some materials deemed suitable to be accepted on your land. First, natural materials such as sand, rock fines, and gravel that have been quarried from areas that aren't chemically contaminated with process residue from agricultural or mining activities, are suitable for use. This is because it is unlikely that the materials contain contaminants such as sulfidic soils or ores among other wastes.

If you have been approved for legitimate reclamation or structural applications beforehand, then you can accept crushed solid materials such as tiles, bricks, and concrete. To get the approval however, you have to provide sufficient information to your local council and other relevant bodies concerning the beneficial re-usage of those materials.

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