Around 100 000 sites in Britain—a total of 300 000 ha—are contaminated from past industrial activity. Following the completion of a detailed site-identification planning in July 2001, local authorities can now force these sites to be cleaned up under part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990—and the cost may fall to the present occupier if the original polluter cannot be found. Civil engineers stand to benefit significantly, not just from assessing and remediating contaminated sites but also from the much greater level of technical risk-assessment likely to be associated with all future land purchase and development. This paper gives a brief overview of the complex and controversial new regime, and offers some suggestions to overcome some of its more operationally and democratically difficult aspects.