The new Environmental Permitting System

The unification of the previous Waste Management Licence and the Pollution Prevention and Control System from the 6th of April 2008 into a single environmental permit under the Environmental Permitting Programme is aimed at making it simpler and less costly for business to fulfil their environmental responsibility. Business that operate a regulated facility or carry out an activity that previously required either, a Pollution Prevention and Control permit or a Waste Management licence, will need an environmental permit; and those that possessed either the Pollution Prevention and Control permit or a Waste Management licence or were exempt under the Waste Management licence, would automatically, without any additional paperwork, become holders of an environmental permits or will continue to be exempt from the 6th of April 2008. Overall, the new system seeks to ease the regulatory burden on business with less hazardous processes and a proven environmental record, by reducing the amount of site visits and form filling of such businesses while putting more scrutiny on business whose activities pose the greatest threat to the environment.

The new environmental permits replaced several permits with a single site based environmental permit, thus providing for three types of environmental permits that can be issued by the Environment Agency or the Local Council. The single site based permit is the new standard rules permit for lower risk waste activities, which contain a non- variable nor appealable standard set of conditions that are suitable for 27 low to medium risk waste activities. There are also a set of rules and risk assessments for each of the 27 low to medium risk waste activities. Consequently, if an applicant's waste operation falls within any of these categories, he must ensure that he reads and understands the rules and the associated risk assessments, and that he will be able to meet their requirements. The other types of environmental permits are the bespoke permits which contain specific conditions for the operation of individual facilities and are suitable for high risk or novel operations; and the consolidated permits which combine two or more environmental permits owned by the same operator and apply to the same regulated facilities.

An applicant for the new environmental permits must either control or will control the operation of a regulated facility and the application must include details about the site, the activity, the authorised person, and a plan of the extent of the site. An application for an environmental permit would be granted if the applicant is a fit and proper person, unless there are concerns that granting the licence will lead to the pollution of the environment, or have serious detrimental effects to the amenities of the locality, or cause harm to human health. An application for an environmental permit will not be granted, in relation to a relevant waste operation, if the use of the site for carrying on that operation requires a planning permission and no such permission is in force. The environmental permit may contain conditions, the purpose of which is to ensure that the authorised activities do not cause harm to the environment or endanger human health, and once granted the holder must comply with the conditions of the permit.

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Adekunle Osibogun - Environmental Law for Polymer Users
http://www.elpu.net