Soil Quality Norms
The legal regulation of soil pollution begins with the system of environmental quality norms under the Georgian Law on Environmental Protection. According to Article 29 of the law, the environmental quality norms are: the maximum permissible norms for the concentration of substances harmful to human health and the natural environment and for the quantities of microorganisms in atmospheric air, water and soil; the maximum permissible norms for noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields and other physical impacts; and the maximum permissible norms for radiation exposure. Soil is named directly in this list, which means that the assessment of land pollution is made precisely against these limit norms. The quality norms are determined once every 5 years, by a statute developed and approved, in agreement with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, by the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs — the agreed competence of the health and environment ministries ensures that the normative values simultaneously protect both the human being and the soil as a component of the natural environment.
Norms for the Use of Chemical Agents in the Environment
One of the main sources of soil pollution is agricultural chemistry, and that is precisely why Article 31 of the law regulates the use in the environment of mineral fertilizers, plant protection agents, growth stimulators and other chemical agents: these norms are established in such a way that no threat is created to human health, to the plant and animal world, or to the soil. The norms for the use of chemical agents, together with the rules for their transport, storage and use, are developed once every 5 years and approved by statute of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in agreement with the health ministry — the management of the agrochemical load is thus constructed as a competence shared between two agencies. By the same article, for the purpose of the optimal use and consumption of chemical substances, the reduction of related risk, and accounting and control, a unified state registry of chemical substances is established, whose compilation procedure is determined by Georgian legislation. This registry is the instrument through which the state sees which substance circulates in the environment and in the soil, and in what volume.