By Marco Muia - aka "Enviroman"
The new Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 (SI No. 3538) have landed and judging by the lack of fanfare and publicity surrounding their final release we could all be forgiven for thinking that someone in Defra was hiding something. I would have expected the final release of such an important consolidation of dozens of Regulations to be accompanied by a serious amount of publicity in the waste industry press. How wrong I was and found out in early February (by accident) that they were actually made on 13 December 2007 (in force on 6 April 2008). They will provide a framework for the control of all existing sites which have exemptions, licenses and PPC permits in England and Wales.
The Regulations consolidate and replace numerous previous instruments and implement the following EC Directives:
i. Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (Schedule 7)
ii. The Waste Framework Directive (Schedule 9)
iii. The Landfill Directive (Schedule 10)
iv. End of Life Vehicles Directive (Schedule 11)
v. Waste Electronic Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (Schedule 12)
vi. Waste Incineration Directive (Schedule 13)
vii. The Solvents Emission Directive (Schedule 14)
viii. The Large Combustion Plants Directive (Schedule 15)
ix. The Asbestos Directive (Schedule 16)
x. The Titanium Dioxide Directive (Schedule 17)
xi. The Petrol Vapour Recovery Directive (Schedule 18)
The change appears to be business as usual with, as expected, a number of tweaks, including:
Single Permits
If a site has one operator for multiple activities a single permit can cover all activities and will be enforced by a single regulator. Such sites are likely to have a single permit, even where the activities are not immediately adjacent to one another. This will not apply to crushers which will remain a Part B local authority activity.
Exclusions
Some other regimes are still excluded from the new system, including permissions under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985, discharge consents, agricultural waste disposal authorisations and the disposal or recovery of some sludges.
Existing Licenses
Existing licenses will transfer to the new regime in which the operator is the permit holder. So sites which have a different operator and licence holder will have to transfer the permit to the existing operator. The only delay to this provision would be where an existing application for a new licence, transfer, modification or surrender has not been dealt with by 6 April 2008. In such cases the licence will become a permit after any appeal deadline has elapsed, for example, a modification issued on 1 June 2008 would become a permit under the new regime on 1 December 2008. The regulator for your sites will still be the Environment Agency. If you have more than one licence on your site the Agency can consolidate the permits into a single one as long as the licence holders are the same legal person. Determination periods for applications remain pretty much the same, not that they have ever mattered to the Agency.
Variations
It will be possible to vary i.e. extend or reduce a licence area which removes the need to apply for extra licenses when you expand your site. To reduce a permit site area will require a partial surrender application.
Standard Rules
From April 2008 operators will be able to apply to operate under a set of standard rules which apply to their industry sector, which is essentially the same as the system of standard permits that has recently been introduced. Site specific permits will become a rarity.
Operator Competence
When assessing an application the regulator must consider operator competence, which includes management systems, technical competence, compliance record and financial competence. The COTC is still a valid qualification. Other schemes are encouraged and we shall have to wait and see which, if any, become the dominant method of demonstrating competence. My biggest worry is the removal of the two years’ grace period before you need to have the COTC. The Agency may still follow the system of Agency assessment but the charge is rumoured to be around £1,000.
Compliance Assessment, Enforcement and Review
Risk based regulation is the theme here, which is the way things have been going for a while. Risk based regulation also means ‘we can’t afford to be on site all the time and need a cheaper system’. This is still good news for operators who don’t want to see their regulator very often but it does lead to more intensive inspection (audits) when they do arrive.
Permit reviews are required under the new regime, although there is no set period for such a review.
Charging
It looks like the dreaded EP OPRA will not be coming in for waste transfer station charges for another year.
Landfills
Inert landfills are no longer a Part A PPC activity but precisely how much difference this will make is anyone’s guess. I will be covering the matter in a month or so once the EP system has bedded in.
That’s it for now! There is a lot of guidance available on the following link should you have trouble sleeping, happy reading. Questions to The Skip if you have any.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/epp/guidance.htm
Marco Muia BSc (Hons) MSc MCIWM is the Director of Oaktree Environmental Limited. He specialises in all aspects of waste regulation consultancy and is a WAMITAB accredited assessor for the COTCs in waste transfer, treatment and inert landfill.
He also holds the level 4 COTCs for Hazardous Waste Treatment and Transfer. You can contact Marco on 01606 558833 if you have any questions about this article or e-mail him at enviroman@theskip.net
