Newsletter Q1 2011
Welcome to our compendium of environmental industrial compliance news items that appeared on our website www.environet.ie over the past quarter. This is a free service, issued every quarter. If you wish to unsubscribe please click the link at the end of this mail.
Gerard Kelly
CONTENTS
ODS Refrigerants – A Reminder (17/12/2010)
Licensing/Permitting and SACs (13/1/2011)
E-PRTR – Where is the information going? (11/2/2011)
EPA to review all IPPC and Waste Licenses (17/2/2011)
Ambient Air Quality Monitoring in Ireland (22/2/2011)
Commission rules out SOx/NOx trading scheme (2/3/2011)
ODS Refrigerants – A Reminder (17/12/2010)
Ozone depleting substance refrigerants received a lot of attention a number of years ago. However some of the target dates have recently passed and some are only a few years away.
For non-critical uses the following are the main phase out dates for CFCs and HCFCs;
- The supply of CFCs was banned from 1 October 2000
- The use of CFCs in the maintenance of refrigeration equipment was banned from 1 January 2001
- The used of virgin HCFCs was banned from 1 January 2010 in the maintenance of refrigeration and air-conditioning units
- There will be a ban on the use of all HCFCs from 1 January 2015
- The refurbishment or upgrade of existing installations or systems currently using HCFC refrigerants, which would result in an increase in the refrigerant volume, is prohibited.
Licensing/Permitting and SACs (13/1/2011)
Prior to the Waddenzee judgement, Natura Impact Statements (formerly Appropriate Assessments) under the EU Habitats Directive were taken to apply to new plans and projects only. Following the judgement all applications for new permits or licenses, as well as reviews of existing permits or licenses, require assessment when an SAC (Special Area of Conservation)or SPA (Special Protection Area) may be impacted. This applies to IPPC Licences issued by the EPA and Trade Effluent Permits issued by a Water Services Authority as well as other authorisations.
For example where an industry discharges to a river designated as a SAC, and where its licence or permit needs to be reviewed, an assessment will automatically be triggered. As a minimum a ‘screening’ exercise needs to be undertaken for any permit or licence that may have an impact, even if that impact already exists. The time required for this assessment needs to be factored in when timetabling applications to regulatory authorities. This is particularly the case where a full NIS is required.
E-PRTR – Where is the information going? (11/2/2011)
At the end of March each year IPPC and Waste licensed facilities fill out the E-PRTR (European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) section of their AER (Annual Environmental Report).
Approximately 24,000 EU facilities are covered by the PRTR regulation (EC) No. 166/2006. Its main aim is to make emissions information available to all stakeholders, including the public and decision making bodies.
A facility must report data where the following criteria are satisfied;
- the facility falls under at least one of the 65 E-PRTR economic activities listed in Annex I of the E-PRTR Regulation and exceeds at least one of the E-PRTR capacity thresholds
- the facility transfers waste off-site which exceed specific thresholds set out in Article 5 of the Regulation
- The facility releases pollutants which exceed specific thresholds specified for each media - air, water and land - in Annex II of the E-PRTR Regulation
If the thresholds are exceeded then the following data is required;
- Releases to air, water and land of any of the 91 E-PRTR pollutants
- Off-site transfers of any of the 91 E-PRTR pollutants in waste water destined for waste-water treatment outside the facility.
- Off-site transfers of waste (reported as tonnes per year) for recovery or disposal. For transboundary movements of hazardous waste outside the reporting country, details of the waste receivers have to be provided.
The data is then submitted to the European Commission and the European Environment Agency by the relevant competent authorities of the EU member states. The competent authority for Ireland is the EPA.
The Commission is planning to carry out a detailed review of data submitted in 2011.
Detailed regional and facility level information is available at the following website http://prtr.ec.europa.eu .
EPA to review all IPPC and Waste Licenses (17/2/2011)
In order to ensure compliance with SI 272 of 2009 - European Communities Environmental Objectives (Surface Waters) Regulations 2009 and SI 9 of 2010 - European Communities Environmental Objectives (Groundwater) Regulations 2010, the EPA is in the process of carrying out an internal review of all licenses where the licensee discharges to surface waters or to groundwater.
Where the EPA finds that the licence is in compliance with the regulations it will issue a declaration to that effect and will follow up with a Technical Amendment to the licence where required.
Where a licence requires to be reviewed the licensee will be informed in the coming months. The review process must be completed by December 22nd 2012. This review may have significant implications for facilities that require wastewater treatment plant upgrades in order to comply with the regulations.
It is unclear at this stage if the review will also cover effluent discharges to a Water Services Authority sewer, but the intent of the legislation is that it will, as ultimately the effluent will discharge to a surface water.
Ambient Air Quality Monitoring in Ireland (22/2/2011)
The EPA is the competent authority for ambient air quality monitoring in Ireland. Limits are set for the following substances under the Clean Air for Europe Directive (2008) and the Fourth Daughter Directive (2007); Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulphur Dioxide, Ozone, Carbon Monoxide, PM10, PM2.5, Lead, Benzene, Arsenic, Cadmium, Nickel, Mercury and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.
The results of this monitoring are of particular importance where air dispersion modeling (ADM) is required to assess the impact of emissions from industrial activities. Baseline data needs to be included in the assessment and added to the contribution of the facility in order to arrive at the overall impact.
Ireland is divided into 4 Zones for the purposes of ambient air quality;
- Zone A: Dublin Conurbation
- Zone B: Cork Conurbation
- Zone C: Other cities and large towns comprising Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Clonmel, Kilkenny, Sligo, Drogheda, Wexford, Athlone, Ennis, Bray, Naas, Carlow, Tralee, Dundalk, Navan, Letterkenny, Celbridge, Newbridge, Mullingar and Balbriggan.
- Zone D: Rural Ireland, i.e. the remainder of the State excluding Zones A, B and C.
It is possible to check which zone you are in using the following website http://maps.epa.ie/internetmapviewer/mapviewer.aspx. Real-time air quality data is available here http://www.epa.ie/whatwedo/monitoring/air/and datasets can also be downloaded.
Commission rules out SOx/NOx trading scheme (2/3/2011)
Since 2007 DG Environment has been investigating the possibility of introducing a SOx/NOx Emissions Trading Scheme. This scheme would have presumably operated in a similar manner to the current CO2 scheme. Following the publishing of a number of reports in December 2010 on the issue, the Commission has decided not to pursue a trading scheme for the following reasons;
- The Industrial Emissions Directive will require industry to make investment decisions regarding BAT compliance for SOx/NOx emissions abatement and a trading scheme would bring uncertainty and possible delays.
- Local improvements in emission limit values and ambient air quality might be jeopardised.
A country specific or EU based Emissions Trading Scheme works best when the pollutants concerned do not generally have localised impacts, as is the case with CO2. A good decision by the Commission.