Services / Decommissioning Plans
Decommissioning Plans
Staged, practical plans for closing or repurposing a site without leaving liability behind.
Operational experience. Practical solutions.
Closing a site safely takes the same operational eye as running one — knowing where the real risks are actually buried, not just where the drawings say they should be.
What is a decommissioning plan?
A decommissioning plan is a documented, staged plan for safely closing down, dismantling or repurposing a waste, industrial or resource recovery site — so that no contamination, fire risk, or environmental liability is left behind once operations stop.
Why do you need one?
Your EPA licence conditions and General Environmental Duty don't end the day the last load leaves site. If your site has held, stored or processed waste, chemicals, plastics, fuels, or anything with potential to harm the environment, you remain responsible for making sure the ground, structures and drainage are left clean and safe — whether the site is being sold, redeveloped, or simply closed. A properly documented decommissioning plan:
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Protects you from post-closure liability, by demonstrating you identified and managed contamination, fire and environmental risk before walking away.
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Supports EPA licence surrender or amendment, where a documented closure and remediation process is expected as part of relinquishing a permission.
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Gives you a clean paper trail, if the site's history is ever questioned by a future owner, tenant, financier, or through a contaminated land search.
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EPA Licence Applications:Â it is a requirement of EPA applications to have a decommissioning plan in place, to demonstrate you understand how you will decommission the site when the operation eventually wraps up.
How CRA can help
We come to site to understand the operation and also investigate its full operational and licence history — not just what's on the current site plan, but what's actually happened there over time.
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Our operational background means we understand where legacy risks typically hide (old bunding, historic spill areas, buried infrastructure), which is critical to scoping a decommissioning plan that actually addresses your site's real risk profile.
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We then develop a staged decommissioning plan covering infrastructure removal and waste stream disposal, remediation of contaminated soil or hardstand where required, validation sampling to confirm the site is clean, EPA notifications (including duty-to-notify obligations where contamination is identified), and the documentation needed to support licence surrender, sale, or redevelopment.