López Ostra v. Spain

The applicant claimed that the family home was subject to serious pollution from a private tannery reprocessing plant built with State subsidies on municipal land 12 metres from applicant’s flat. The ECtHR stated that:

-Severe environmental pollution may affect individuals' well-being and prevent them from enjoying their homes in such a way as to affect their private and family life adversely, without, however, seriously endangering their health.

-State must strike a fair balance between the competing interests of the individual and of the community - waste-treatment plant, built to solve a serious pollution problem, had caused nuisance as soon as it started up - problems had continued after its partial shutdown - town council's members could not have been unaware of this but municipal authorities failed to take steps to protect applicant's right to respect for her home and for her private and family life, and those authorities and Crown Counsel resisted judicial decisions to that effect - fact that for one year municipality had met expense of renting flat in town centre had not afforded redress for nuisance suffered for three years.

-Despite State's margin of appreciation, no fair balance had been struck between the town's economic well-being (that of having a waste-treatment plant) and the applicant's effective enjoyment of her rights.

Conclusion: violation of Article 8