BREF Documents – Get involved in the process

In Ireland the EPA bases, for the most part, its BAT Guidance Note on the equivalent EU BREF document.

As noted in our previous news items, BAT Guidance Notes should be used as a basis for setting BAT for a site. However, more often than not, the achievable emission limit values set out in the guidance note will find there way into the IPPC licence. Therefore the BREF process in Seville is critical in setting the agenda for IPPC & Waste licensed industry in Ireland.

The European IPPC Bureau (EIPPCB) in Seville is tasked with developing BAT Reference documents (BREFS) for sectors covered by the Industrial Emissions Directive (formerly the IPPC Directive). BREFs are supposed to ensure that BAT will be determined in a consistent way across the EU.

The bulk of the work takes place in the so called Technical Working Group (TWG). This group is composed of experts from industry, national regulators and NGOs. Industry representatives on the TWG are usually nominated by an EU or national representative body.

It takes the bureau approximately 3 years to produce a BREF document for a particular sector and the aim is to have BREFs revised on an 8 year cycle.

It is absolutely critical that industry in Ireland engages with the TWG process in Seville. If you feel you have something to contribute you should make your representative body aware of your interest. The current status of BREFs is available at the link below.

http://eippcb.jrc.es/reference/

For further information contact Gerard Kelly at 058-51155.