Soil protection
Performance specification
On the subject of soil protection, the agricultural department gives opinions to the water and soil protection, building and nature and landscape protection departments within the framework of administrative assistance, i.e. within the administration. Technical assistance is provided on questions concerning soil protection and agriculture as well as on questions concerning the application of soil material on agricultural land.
Soil is an indispensable basis of life for nature and society, their development and sustainable usability. Soil cannot be multiplied and has only limited resilience. This is particularly important from the point of view of food security on agricultural land. Once damaged, soil only renews and recovers very slowly, if at all. Threatening dangers can result from a gradual accumulation of environmentally hazardous substances in the soil.
In addition to water and air, the protection of soil has been legally established as a further object of environmental protection. For all impacts on the soil, the precautionary principle of sparing and careful use of land and soil must be observed in order to preserve the natural soil functions to a sufficient degree. Harmful soil changes or contaminated sites must be remediated. In this way, the diversity of possible uses can be preserved for future generations.
Legal basis
What else should I know?
Further information on "soil protection" is available on the website of the Hessian Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection
Who do I need to contact?
The contact persons are the higher soil protection authorities, i.e. the regional councils.
The lower soil protection authorities are contact persons in the field of preventive soil protection, in particular they are responsible for notifying the application of material onto or into the soil. Lower soil protection authorities are the district committee of the counties and the magistrate of the independent cities.