Foreword

The Bonfol chemical waste landfill, one of the biggest of its kind in Switzerland, was in activity from 1961 to 1976. The formal procedure by the authorities demanding the clean-up of the site started at the beginning of the year 2000 and the task will be accomplished approximately in 2016 with costs close to 0.5 billion CHF. As the clean-up is still going on, this book is the first published using this particular case. The authors come to the conclusion that regulations that fix environmental standards, and the relations between the public institutions and governments on one side, and the industry and other private actors on the other side, are the necessary basis for coherent environmental management. However, according to the reviewer of this book, authorities of the public political entities such as cantons and even the Swiss confederation as the central state do not always have, neither the financial possibilities, nor the necessary political power to fully apply the law. In these cases, under the current legislation, the conflict with NGO's and other representatives of the civil society is predictable. However, there should be mechanisms to integrate all the social forces in the decision process, to come to optimal solutions and support the environmental sustainability of the projects