Pre-application Briefing Industrial Emissions Directive September 2012

Pre-application Briefing
Industrial Emissions Directive September 2012
Introduction
This is a general briefing for field officers on the implications the Industrial Emission Directive (IED) is likely to
bring to future permitting. It is intended to support pre-application discussions with applicants in the
expectation that those discussions will be more informed and applications will contain relevant information
when submitted. It also provides an update on the planned changes to effective permits should that preapplication
discussion relate to variations.
Background
IED is being implemented because of European Commission (EC) concerns that certain existing directives
are poorly and inconsistently implemented, as well as failing to deliver the expected environmental benefits. It
is important as it will:
• Replace seven existing Directives that we currently implement through the Environmental
Permitting Regulations (EPR).
• Extend the scope of activities, requiring some facilities currently regulated as exempt or as waste
activities to apply as installations, demonstrating BAT as they do, ultimately creating more EPR
installations.
• Impose new requirements on the installations we regulate and strengthen existing IPPC principles.
• See the deregulation of some activities, resulting in regulatory responsibility for some installations
being transferred to Local Authorities, some requiring single media permits, for example for
discharges to controlled waters, and others ceasing to be regulated completely.
Timescales
IED will be implemented as an amendment to the existing Environmental Permitting Regulations. Defra and
Welsh Government have consulted on proposed changes. Revisions to EPR will be laid before Parliament in
October 2012. IED is implemented over several years commencing from 7 January 2013 as follows:
• 7 January 2013 – IED applies to all new installations from this date onwards. All applications for
new facilities submitted beyond this date will have to demonstrate IED compliance as they are
assessed by NPS.
• 7 January 2014 – IED applies to existing installations (not Large Combustion Plants (LCPs) This
includes new facilities that were permitted prior to January 2013 but become operational after this
date.
• 7 July 2015 – IED applies to existing installations operating newly prescribed activities (for
example, some composting & AD facilities, some MBT & RDF production facilities).
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Pre-application Briefing – September 2012
• 1 January 2016 – LCPs must meet the specific requirements set out in Chapter III and Annex V
of the IED.
Changes to Installation activities
Proposed amendments to the activity schedule references in EPR introduced by IED include the following
significant elements:
• Some activities, that were not described in the IPPC Directive, but were nevertheless regulated in
the UK under Integrated Pollution Control, will move to be regulated as Part A(2) or Part B
processes regulated by Local Authorities. Some will require a different type of environmental
permit, for example for a discharge to controlled waters, and a few will cease to be regulated
completely. DEFRA and Welsh Government have however chosen to continue to include some
such activities in the regulations which although not described in IPPC or in IED will remain in EPR
based on environmental risk.
• Removal of section 1.1 A(1)(b) previously used for regulating the burning of many types of waste.
Landfill gas engines will now generally be regulated as DAA’s to the landfill. Plants combusting
bio-gas are likely to become waste activities. Plants combusting solid or liquid wastes are likely to
be regulated under section 5.1 dependant on throughput. Smaller facilities will be regulated by
Local Authorities, including those WID only falling within below the EA 3t/hr threshold but above the
LA 1 t/hr threshold.
• Section 5.3 is re-written to refer to the disposal or recovery of hazardous waste, being more
specific about the types of activities treated as installations where the capacity exceeds 10 tonnes
per day, now including the blending, mixing or repackaging prior to other 5.3 activities.
• Section 5.4 is re-written to refer to the disposal or recovery of non-hazardous waste (or a mix of
disposal & recovery) and now identifies the pre-treatment of waste for incineration or coincineration;
the treatment of slags and ashes; & the treatment in shredders of metal waste
including waste electrical and electronic equipment and end-of-life vehicles and their components
that were not included previously. Larger biological treatment sites including MBT, AD and
composting are also capture by this section.
The complete list of changes is wider in scope than can be presented in this briefing note. Until the revised
regulations are published, the complete list of proposed changes to the Schedule 1 of the Regulations is
available on the DEFRA consultation website. In delivering pre-application advice, you are advised to refer to
this complete list.
Implementation process
There are various work streams being delivered by the Environment Agency to implement the changes IED
introduces to business processes. This includes
Guidance & permitting process –This encompasses updates to generic, sector specific, compliance and
enforcement guidance. Key pieces of revised document & guidance are being prepared:
• Existing BAT guidance for the historic installation activities remains relevant until the new BREF
notes & BAT Conclusions documents are published and implemented through sector reviews.
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Pre-application Briefing – September 2012
• Revisions to the application pack, including forms and guidance notes are in progress due for
release in December. These revised forms will be needed for all applications submitted after 6th
January 2013.
• RGN 2 & RGN 4 are being revised to incorporate changes IED introduces to our approach to the
definition of facilities and to baseline assessment requirements. These should also be available in
the near future.
• BAT guidance for some of the activities new to installations can be interpreted from existing IPPC
Waste Treatment and Storage technical guidance. Other new guidance is being developed to
define best available techniques for issue such as Bio-waste Treatment which should be available
for public consultation during October 2012. Annex 1 below indicates planned arrangements for
delivering interim BAT.
• H5 – site condition report guidance is being updated. IED requires that all applications contain, as
a minimum, a description of the condition of the site of the installation. Where applicable, a
“baseline report” also needs to be submitted, being a report containing information on the state of
soil and groundwater contamination by relevant hazardous substances.
• Changes to the OPRA scheme induced by IED are being finalised. Changes which impact on
charges have been included in the current charging consultation.
• We are developing standard rules to simplify the permitting process (and reduce costs) for a
number of activities including composting, anaerobic digestion and treatment of waste ashes and
slags. These have been consulted upon and will be published in November.
Changes to legacy activities – there are a range of actions that need to be taken related to our existing
installation permits:
• Where the changes to regulations affect the activity schedule references in current installation
permits we will be varying the permits to reflect those changes. The permits involved have already
been identified, data has been gathered from field teams on the changes required. This work is
being planned & resourced and will be completed over coming months.
• The permits for those facilities that cease to be regulated are likely to be dissolved by the revisions
to the Environmental Permitting Regulations.
• Changes to the charging structure for all these sites, including refunds for reduced subsistence
fees for the January to March period are currently being assessed.
• Permits that change to be controlled by the Local Authority are likely to be migrated in March for
implementation in the new financial year.
IED relevant applications – all applications for new activities submitted to P&SC after 7th January 2013 will
be determined against the revised activity schedule references and must demonstrate compliance with IED
requirements. This includes use of revised forms, assessment of activities new to installations against BAT
standards and baseline assessments of site condition in accordance with the revised H5 site condition report
guidance for all new facilities.
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Pre-application Briefing – September 2012
Once we have made a decision on these new applications we are obliged to make copies of the permits &
decision documents available over the internet. Until an electronic public register (ePR) is available a
temporary solution is being provided where documents will be visible on our website.
It is likely that additional data gathering will be required at the point of determination to satisfy requirements
that the Commission have already alluded to.
Existing operations – there are a reasonable number of sites already operating those activities that are new
to the activity schedule references such as composting & AD facilities, some MBT & RDF production facilities.
These facilities will continue to be controlled as exemptions / waste activities until July 2015 when they will
need to go through a re-permitting process to validate BAT etc. Plans are currently being developed for this
re-permitting process. The revision to EPR will introduce 3 windows for the submission of applications as
part of this process to assist in the smoothing of such application work for NPS. Each window will be 3 month
long. The regulations will define which activity should be submitted in which window for the operator to have
a defence should his permit not be issued prior to 7th July 2015. Further guidance, training and support of
this re-permitting process will be provided nearer to the time.
Implications for sector groups
Sector Leads will have an important role in communicating the impact of IED to their sectors, in feeding into
the EA consultation process on sector specific issues and steering the IED Programme on what guidance ,
tools and or issues need to be available and when.
There are 14 sector groups. Each has a Sector Intervention Plan setting out their five year strategy for the
sector as well as their intervention activities for the present year. Implications and impacts of IED will be
different for each sector and will occur over different timescales. IED impacts will need to be reflected in both
the five year strategies and the intervention plans as appropriate.
Further information
Our website and the DEFRA and Welsh Government websites provide further information on IED. Customers
with any specific questions about our IED role or its impact upon them should speak to their usual
Environment Agency Area or Sector lead or should contact our Customer Contact Centre
(enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk).
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Pre-application Briefing – September 2012
Annex 1 – Interim BAT plan
Revised
EPR
Section
Activity Interim BAT measure
5.1 Disposal or recovery of waste in waste
incineration plants or in waste co-incineration
plants.
Covered by existing guidance.
5.2 Landfills, as defined in point (g) of Article 2 of
Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999
on the landfill of waste[1], receiving more than
10 tonnes of waste per day or with a total
capacity exceeding 25 000 tonnes, excluding
landfills of inert waste.
Covered by existing guidance
5.3 Disposal or recovery of hazardous waste with a
capacity exceeding 10 tonnes per day involving
one or more of the following activities:
Largely covered by existing BREF. New
recovery activities will generally be subject
to same BAT requirements as for disposal.
5.4 (a) Disposal of non-hazardous waste with a
capacity exceeding 50 tonnes per day involving
one or more of the following activities, and
excluding activities covered by Council
Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991
concerning urban wastewater treatment.
Covered by existing guidance.
5.4 (b) Recovery, or a mix of recovery and disposal, of
non-hazardous waste with a capacity
exceeding 75 tonnes per day involving one or
more of the following activities, and excluding
activities covered by Directive 91/271/EEC.
(i) Biological treatment. We are producing reports on technical
standards for composting, AD, and
MBT/MHT activities. This will be developed
into technical guidance which will be used
as the basis for interim BAT.
(ii) Pre-treatment of waste for incineration or coincineration.
MBT/MHT guidance will cover substantial
part of this. May need to assess other pretreatments
where output from MRFs is
being sent for incineration.
(iii) Treatment of slags and ashes. Best practice guide for IBA will be adapted
for broader range of ashes. Slags to be
accommodated by including specific section
on size reduction.
(iv) Treatment in shredders of metal waste,
including waste electrical and electronic
equipment and end-of-life vehicles and their
components.
BMRA will share its work on shredder
operation standards. If appropriate we will
develop this into interim BAT guidance.
Need to ensure bulky WEEE and similar is
accounted for.
5.6(a) Temporary storage of hazardous waste not
covered under point 5.4 pending any of the
activities listed in points 5.1, 5.2, 5.4 and 5.6
with a total capacity exceeding 50 tonnes,
excluding temporary storage, pending
collection, on the site where the waste is
generated.
Covered by S5.06
5.6 (b) Underground storage of hazardous waste with
a total capacity exceeding 50 tonnes.
Bespoke solution required