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Tauw Iberia and Uria Menéndez organized a workshop on “Decommissioning of industrial activities. Liabilities and consequences from a legal and technical-environmental point of view.”

During the last years, Tauw Iberia, an environmental consultancy with a broad technical and environmental management experience in decommissioning and restructuring of industrial sites, as well as Uria y Menéndez, a distinguished law firm with a large track record advising companies on their legal and environmental liabilities concerning disinvestments, have advised and defended the interests of many clients on decommissioning and disinvestment.

The existing economic crisis present in almost the totality of the Spanish industrial sector has forced a large number of industries to (partially or totally) close down their production plants, or to reorientate and optimize their business’ operations.

Based on the above mentioned situation, Tauw Iberia and Uria y Menéndez have determined that some issues like existing environmental liabilities (in soil and groundwater), its transfer, liabilities concerning future environmental responsibilities as well as obtaining permits from the public administrations concerned, represent an additional difficulty to an already complex process of industrial decommissioning or disinvestment.

Due to the complexity of these processes, they have to be approached from a wide and independent point of view which implies considering different legal liabilities and complex technical specification.

Controlling the process from its initial phase and proceeding with an organized work methodology represents an additional value when complying with target dates and costs. Tauw Iberia and Uria Menéndez organized a workshop on “Decommissioning of industrial activities. Liabilities and consequences from a legal and technical-environmental point of view.”

Through this workshop, Tauw Iberia and Uria Menéndez wanted to offer their clients the possibility to clarify concepts, uncertainties and to share experiences related to the problematic of industrial site closure. Industries and public administrations had the opportunity to exchange experiences and different points of view related to decommissioning and disinvestment.

During the workshop we counted on the participation of several external experts like Thomas Grosjean (Specialist in Technology and Remediation Management at BP Oil) and Dominique Chaize (Director of Operations at Givaudan), who presented their interesting experience related to decommissioning.

The public administrations were represented by Enric Pueyo (General Manager in environmental quality at Generalitat of Catalonia), Josep Anton Doménech (Head of the department industrial management at the Catalan Waste Agency (ARC), Emili Dragone, (Secretary of the environmental committee at Generalitat of Catalonia), and Ainhoa Mitegui (Legal advise lawyer at the Basque Country).

Tauw Iberia and Uria Menéndez consider the workshop a success seen the high participation of industries and based on the questions exposed and the solutions offered from an environmental, legal and political point of view.