Partial Passing on of Costs for Noise Barriers to Property Owners Permissible

Facts

The community of heirs of Y. as the owner of a plot of land near the A2 motorway in Sissach was obliged by the municipality of Sissach to bear a portion of the costs for the construction of noise barriers along the motorway. The community of heirs filed a complaint against this and argued that the obligation to bear the costs violated the polluter-pays principle. The Federal Supreme Court partially upheld the complaint.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court stated that under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), the polluter is generally obliged to bear the costs of measures to protect against environmental pollution. Since the noise pollution that made the construction of the noise barriers necessary originated from the motorway, the canton as the owner of the infrastructure and the builder should be counted among the group of those obliged to pay the costs. A complete passing on of the costs to the property owners would therefore be incompatible with the polluter-pays principle.

However, the cantonal legislature is not prohibited from imposing at least a portion of the costs on the property owners, as they are also involved as disturbance originators. Such…