Reference: 2010/675
Last Update: 06/09/2011
ENVIRONMENTAL PERMITTING (ENGLAND AND WALES) REGULATIONS 2010, AS AMENDED
The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 introduce a single environmental permitting and compliance regime to apply in England and Wales.
The regulations integrate permitting regimes covering waste management licensing (WML), Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC), discharges to controlled waters, groundwater permitting and radioactive substances, as well as a number of EU Directives.
They also incorporate 11 European Directives on environmental protection, covering: Asbestos; Titanium Dioxide; Volative Organic Compound emissions resulting from the storage of petrol and its distribution from terminals to service stations; Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control; Solvent Emissions; Landfill; End-of Life Vehicles; Waste Incineration; Large Combustion Plants; Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment; Waste Framework Directives and Mining Waste.
The 2010 regulations also introduced:
- the consent system of water discharges in Chapter 2 of Part 3 of the Water Resources Act 1991;
- the groundwater permitting system in the Groundwater (England and Wales) Regulations 2009; and
- the system of radioactive substances regulation in the Radioactive Substances Act 1993.
Schedule 1 to the regulations detail which operators are required to apply for a permit. Schedules 2 and 3 detail (mainly waste) operations which are exempt from the requirement to apply for a permit.
Part 2
- Chapter 2: details how sites where multiple regulated activities are carried out are to be regulated and procedures for the consolidation of permits.
- Chapter 3: details procedures for the variation, transfer, revocation and surrender of permits.
- Chapter 4: details procedures for the making of Standard Rules.
- Chapter 5: details procedure for appeals against permit conditions set by the regulator (further details in Schedule 6).
Part 3: provides for the functions of the regulator including periodic review of permits.
Part 4: deals with enforcement of permit conditions and relevant offences and penalties.
Part 5: provides for the setting up of Public Registers by the regulator, as set out in Schedule 24.
Part 6: sets out various powers of the regulator including the power to take steps to remove the risk of serious pollution where it exists and recover the costs from the Operator.
Part 7: deals with miscellaneous and transitional provisions, savings, consequential amendments, revocations and repeals (see details in Schedules 21, 22 and 23).
Scope: All “Regulated facilities” as detailed in Schedule 1 of the regulations must operate under an environmental permit. These activities are categorised as “Part A(1)”, “Part A(2)” and “Part B”. A “Regulated facility” also includes every waste mobile plant and waste operation not otherwise included, subject to exemptions and exclusions (defined in regulation 4). Operators apply to the regulator for a permit.
Those already holding permits under existing regimes will be moved to the new regime immediately without having to make fresh applications. In certain operational conditions, such as where there is more than one permit in operation at the same site by the same operator, the regulator has the power to consolidate these into a single permit.
Standard Permits: Ministers and the Agency will have powers to make general binding rules (GBRs) setting out common requirements for a particular class of facilities. These rules can be used in "standard permits" instead of site-specific conditions. GBRs will suit sectors where several regulated facilities share similar characteristics.
Operator Competence: Certificates of technical competence will no longer be the sole means of showing operator competence. Larger and more complex sites should have a formal, independently audited environmental management system such as ISO 14001.
The Regulator: Part A(1) activities and waste operations other than those at an installation, or Part A mobile plant or Part B mobile plant are all regulated by the Environment Agency; Part A(2) and Part B activities by the local authority. Where “regulated facilities” have more than one regulator, it will be possible to amalgamate these responsibilities so that they are conducted by one regulator.
Duties of the Regulator include: granting and reviewing permits; inspecting regulated facilities; and, enforcing conditions or site closures in the risk of environmental pollution. The regulator also has the power to prevent or remedy pollution and to recover associated costs from the operator. The operator has the right of appeal.
Offences: Offences under the Regulations include: operating or allowing operation of a regulated facility without a permit; failure to comply with, or contravene a permit condition or enforcement notice; failure to supply information or supplying false information with the intention to deceive. A person guilty of an offence may be subject to:
- on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or to both; or
- on conviction on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, or to both.
It is a defence to prove that acts were done in an emergency in order to avoid danger to human health Guidance.
The provisions of the following directives are contained within the following schedules of the EPR:
- Schedules 7&8 - PPC
- Schedule 9 — Waste operations
- Schedule 10 — Landfill
- Schedule 11 — Waste motor vehicles
- Schedule 12 — Waste electrical and electronic equipment
- Schedule 13 — Waste incineration
- Schedule 14 — SED installations
- Schedule 15 — Large combustion plants
- Schedule 16 — Asbestos
- Schedule 17 — Titanium dioxide
- Schedule 18 — Petrol vapour recovery
- Schedule 19 — Waste batteries and accumulators
- Schedule 20 — Mining waste operations
- Schedule 21 — Water discharge activities
- Schedule 22 — Groundwater activities
- Schedule 23 — Radioactive substances activities
- Schedule 25 — Waste and extractive waste
Simplified guidance is available from DEFRA.
A 2010 amendment alters the exemption limit for storing waste oil other than at a place of its production pending recovery elsewhere from 400m3 to 3m3.
A second amendment deregulates certain vegetable matter drying facilities and certain facilities manufacturing powder coatings (an alternative to liquid paint) which do not use lead chromate or triglycidyl isocyanurate, from requiring a permit. It also transfers vacuum furnaces which melt non-ferrous metal from Part A2 to Part B.
The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2011
This amendment implements changes in respect to carbon capture and storage, including:
- insertion of a new regulated activity into Schedule 1, on the capture of carbon dioxide;
- amendments to Schedule 22 (groundwater activities) so that a Regulator may grant a permit for geological injection of carbon dioxide.
The Regulation 5 is extended relating to groundwater activities to allow a tracer test involving a radioactive substance to fall within the exemption. Schedule 23 (radioactive substances) has been replaced with a consolidated version which includes additions and amendments. Definitions of radioactive material and radioactive waste are amended and conditional exemptions for the requirement to hold an environmental permit are introduced.
Regulations 9 to 11 insert transitional arrangements into the EP Regulations which apply to existing users of radioactive substances. Where a person requires an environmental permit because of a change to the definition of radioactive materials or waste, that person has until 1 April 2012 to apply for a permit or to comply with a new exemption. A person who was exempt but is no longer exempt has until 1 April 2012 to apply for a permit. A person who is no longer required to hold an environmental permit may surrender that permit.
Last Update: 17/02/2011
By: Ardagh Glass Central Corporate Register
Applicability
This legislation is applicable to Ardagh's English sites only.
All processes previously regulated under the 2007 Environmental Permitting scheme will now come under these 2010 Regulations. There is no need for Ardagh to reapply for permits.
All of Ardagh's sites are glass manufctures, where the melting capacity of the plant is more than 20 tonnes per day. This means that each of Ardagh's sites will be regulated under Part A (2) (a) of Section 3.3 of Chapter 1 under Part 2 of Schedule 1 of these Regulations.
Further details are provided in sections 1.1.2 to 1.1.6 below.
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