CETESB launches the 3rd edition – revised and expanded – of the Contaminated Areas Management Manual

In brief

CETESB Board Decision No. 048/2025 approved the 3rd edition – revised and expanded – of the Contaminated Areas Management Manual. With 647 pages spread over 16 chapters, the document consolidates technical and regulatory advances accumulated over decades, reaffirming its role as a national reference in Contaminated Area Management (CAM) processes. Although it does not replace specific CETESB board decisions, such as 038/2017 and 056/2024, the Manual should be used in a complementary manner, offering an updated roadmap of procedures and methodologies for the environmental management of contaminated areas.

In more detail

More than just a technical instrument, the Manual is a strategic tool for enabling the rehabilitation and reuse of contaminated land. CETESB’s initiative promotes the recovery of soils and groundwater, allowing the valorization of real estate assets previously considered unviable, the legal requalification of areas for urban purposes and the safe and sustainable reinsertion of these spaces into the market.

This is a concrete opportunity to transform environmental liabilities into productive assets, with technical backing, legal predictability and economic potential, favoring strategic decisions in regulated environments, with direct impacts on the viability of redevelopment projects, industrial expansion and logistics development.

We recommend that management be reviewed and thought through in the light of the new regulatory moment that is being established due to the new directives published by CETESB.