Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control
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[edit] Introduction
The European Community (EC) Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive 1996[1] defines its purpose in Article 1 of the Directive:
“…to achieve integrated pollution prevention and control of pollutions arising from activities listed in Annex I. It lays down measures to prevent, or where that is not practicable, to reduce emissions in the air, water and land from the above mentioned activities, including measures concerning waste, in order to achieve a high level of protection of the environment taken as a whole…”
The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC) Directive was based on the UK’s experience in implementing and operating a similar permitting regime - Integrated Pollution Control (IPC). The Directive’s aims are achieved through a system of integrated regulation controlled by agencies in individual member states. Permits are based on the application of the Best Available Techniques and control emissions to all three environmental media, as well as raw material use, waste generation, energy use, noise and odour, and protection of soils and groundwater.
Best Available Techniques (BAT) are defined by EC Directive 96/61 as
“the most effective and advanced stage in the development of activities and their methods of operation which indicates the practicable suitability of particular techniques for providing the basis for emission limit values designed to prevent, and where that is not practicable, generally to reduce the emissions and the impact on the environment as a whole”.
The European Commission has established bodies to identify Best Available Technique (BAT), produce guidance and clarify areas of uncertainty in the Directive. The Information Exchange Forum (IEF) is made up of member states’ representatives who agree the programme content and extent of BREFs (BAT Reference Documents), which are then produced by the European IPPC Bureau[2] (EIPPCB) based in Seville, made up of secondees from the member states. In addition, the IPPC Experts Group (IEG) which meets to debate areas of uncertainty in the Directive and provide guidance to the EC; and IMPEL[3], a EU-wide regulator’s network which meets to promote best practice across the EU. The broad purpose of all these groups is to ensure a level playing field and a consistency of approach across the EU.
[edit] The United Kingdom and IPPC
[edit] The History of Pollution Control Regulation in the United Kingdom – the move to more integrated regulation
Pollution control in the UK up to the 1970s was characterised by a range of disparate legislation concerned with controlling releases to different media, regulated by a range of different bodies. Legislation up to this date had mainly been formed in reaction to a specific problem experienced at the time; for example the Clean Air Act 1956 was introduced as a reaction to the London smogs of 1952. The lack of a coherent approach lead to piecemeal legislation, as well as a fragmented allocation of duties and responsibilities. This was confusing for industry, the regulators and the public.
Against this background, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution’s 5th Report (1976) reviewed the “efficacy of methods of the control of air pollution from domestic and industrial sources” and considered “the relation between relevant authorities”. One of the main findings of the Royal Commission was that the disjointed approach to environmental pollution control and the treatment of emissions to air, land and water as three separate issues lead to a danger that “the allocation of available resources to each of the media will not reflect an overall view of where the pollution problems are most severe” and that this approach could lead to the haphazard disposal of emissions to one media without taking into account which media a particular substance should be best released to.
The Royal Commission recommended that a single unified body should be set up to administer any integrated regulatory controls, and that the concept of the Best Practicable Environmental Option[4] (BPEO) should be adopted to allow the environmental outcomes of a process to be assessed and emissions made to the environmental media which would lead to least damage to the environment.
This led to the formation of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) in 1987. HMIP brought together the Industrial Air Pollution Inspectorate of the HSE, and the Radiochemical, Hazardous Waste and Water Inspectorates of the Department of the Environment. HMIP’s main responsibilities were to regulate around 2,000 processes under Integrated Pollution Control (IPC), regulate the Radioactive Substances Act and provide some advisory role in relation to the management of hazardous wastes. Large areas of environmental pollution control were, however, still under the remit of other organisations. These areas included:
- discharges to controlled waters from activities outside the IPC regime and water abstraction, which were under the control of the National Rivers Authority;
- the control of trade effluent discharges to sewer, which was the responsibility of the privatised water companies, and;
- responsibility for waste regulation, which was under the control of the local authorities.
The creation of a the first unified regulator, HMIP, allowed the development of the UK’s first integrated approach to environmental pollution control, the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) regime, created by the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Many of the elements of IPC drew on previous legislation and its approaches, notably the Alkali Works Act 1906 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The industrial sectors regulated by IPC were largely derived from those covered in previous legislation.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA 1990), Part I established two regimes to control industrial pollution, IPC, the responsibility of HMIP, that regulated the more polluting processes and substances (intended to control pollution to all media), and the Air Pollution Control (APC) regime, administered by Local Authorities that controlled only emissions to air, from less polluting industries.
The basis of IPC was that an industrial operator required an authorisation to operate a prescribed process, and that a range of factors were to be considered when determining an authorisation, including the effect of emissions on all three media (air, water and land). The EPA 1990 also introduced the concept that BATNEEC (Best Available Techniques Not Entailing Excessive Cost) should be applied to each element of a process, building on the previous Best Practicable Means (BPM) approach, as well as the requirement that the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) should be applied when considering the effect of releases to the environment as a whole (i.e. across all media). IPC was implemented in England and Wales between 1991 and 1996, following a phased timetable for applications, according to industrial sector.
Although the IPC regime controlled emissions to three media, there were gaps in its coverage. The generation of waste was not expressly considered, and waste disposal was generally under the control of the local Waste Regulation Authority. In addition, IPC focused on emissions to air; probably reflecting the background and expertise of the HMIP Inspectors (originally from the Alkali Inspectorate and Radiochemical Inspectorate). This emphasis was mirrored in guidance, the Chief Inspector’s Guidance Notes (which described BATNEEC and guideline emission limit values). In many cases the main test for emissions to water was whether or not the site met existing consented discharge releases. IPC authorisations and guidance hardly addressed the prevention of emissions to land, for example there was no guidance on suitable containment of chemicals.
Although IPC may not have established full integration, it was a significant step toward integrated regulation and established three important principles:
- Setting emission limits for a particular site based on the lowest levels that could reasonably be achieved through the use of the BATNEEC;
- Periodic review of authorisations so that emissions could be reduced as technological advances allowed;
- Introduction of the idea of cross-media permitting to industry and the regulator and allowing them time to become familiar with the regime before the introduction of the Pollution Prevention and Control regime.
In April 1996 the Environment Agency[5] for England and Wales was formed through the amalgamation of HMIP, the National Rivers Authority and the local authority Waste Regulation Authorities. Similar bodies were formed in Scotland (Scottish Environment Protection Agency - SEPA) and Northern Ireland (Environment and Heritage Service - EHS). The Environment Agency is a government agency with responsibility for pollution control, as well as a wide range of water-related functions such as flood defence, land drainage and water resources. Section 4 of the Environment Act 1995 establishes the principal aim of the Environment Agency: in discharging its functions the Agency is required to protect or enhance the environment, taken as a whole, and to work towards the objective of achieving sustainable development. The formation of the Environment Agency brought together the main regulatory elements of pollution control under one body for the first time. There were, however, areas, such as the control of discharges to sewer that are still largely outside Environment Agency control, as well as nature conservation responsibilities.
The Environment Agency regulates the current system of integrated pollution control in England and Wales; introduced by the Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999 and subsequent Regulations (2000). This Act implemented the EC Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive 96/61/EC.
[edit] Implementation of IPPC
The UK joined the European Union in 1972 (or European Economic Community as it was known then), since then the EU has had an increasingly important role in shaping environmental policy and legislation in the UK. EC environmental legislation is usually made through Directives; framework documents that specify the results member states are required to achieve, although the mechanisms used to achieve the goals are left up to the individual member states to implement. The EU sets timescales for implementation of Directives into domestic legislation. Member states that do not comply face infraction proceedings. In the UK the requirements of EC Directives are transposed into domestic legislation, commonly through Regulations or Acts of Parliament.
In the UK the IPPC Directive was implemented through the Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999[6] and Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2000[7] (PPC)
The most significant changes from IPC to PPC are the wider coverage of the regulations, extended from just environmental emissions to other environmental impacts, including waste minimisation, resource efficiency, energy use, noise and odour, and soil and groundwater protection. In addition the regime was widened to cover industrial installations, rather than discrete processes, and the range of sectors was broadened to include industries such as food and drink and intensive farming. The PPC regime in the UK mirrored the earlier pattern of the more potentially polluting sectors being regulated by the Environment Agency (part A1 installations) and less polluting (part A2 and part B) installations being regulated by Local Authorities.
In the UK PPC is being phased in between 2001 and 2007. By April 2005 approximately 1,000 permits had been issued by the Environment Agency.
The application is made available for public scrutiny and the regulator consults relevant statutory bodies. In determining the application the regulator considers whether the operator is using BAT to minimise emissions and whether BPEO has been applied. A permit containing emission limits, operational controls, monitoring and reporting requirements and improvement conditions is issued to the operator. Compliance with the permit conditions is monitored and the permit is reviewed periodically to reflect developments in technology and the operation of the site. Before a site can close the operator has to demonstrate that the condition of the site is no worse than it was when the permit was issued.
[edit] Review
To date there have not been any wide-ranging studies that have examined the outcomes of integrated regulation in the UK. There has, however, been a study that investigated the resource efficiency savings made by all operators regulated under IPC and PPC between 1998 and 2002.[8] The study, conducted by the consultants Atkins (WS Atkins PLC) on behalf of the Environment Agency, identified a 25% drop in waste disposal over the period and a 51% increase in waste recovery across England and Wales.
