Industry and air

The project aims to share knowledge and good practices among regulatory professionals and developing guidance and training materials to support the effective implementation of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED). Specific outcomes of the project over the next four years (2021-2024) will be:

The intense public debate on the shale gas industry has brought the spotlight on the whole onshore oil and gas industry, how it is regulated and what is considered best practice for the industry. The EU regulatory framework has recently been assessed by the European Commission (EC), which published a ‘Recommendation’ for minimum principles for the extraction of hydrocarbons (including shale gas) using hydraulic fracturing, with the intension to review its implementation in August 2015. However, this work did not look at the existing practices of the onshore oil and gas industry.

Data collection and analysis concerning industrial accidents is necessary in order to prevent new accidents. Inspectors need to have illustrations of accidental situations, in order to understand what happened indeed and which measures were finally taken in such situations.

This project was undertaken to prepare a report on how human health effects are taken into account in the various stages involved in permitting within the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive. By considering the current varied approaches of Member States to this issue a good practice guide has been developed. This guide will assist Member States by identifying common principles and procedures which they can consider in their implementation of the IPPC Directive. IPPC provides a stronger emphasis than any earlier legislation on protecting human health through environmental regulation. The project identified that in most European Member States (MS) the responsibilities for health protection and environmental protection do not rest with the same body. Implementing IPPC is therefore challenging and requires significant co-operation.

The present report originates from the results of a questionnaire, discussed in meetings held over the interval October 2004 – June 2005. The discussion concentrated on the economics; the production processes; laws and regulations; inspection procedures. The report is conceived as a tool for the public bodies involved in controls and in monitoring activities on the tanning industry. To this end it collates the experiences of several European contexts of the leather and tanning industry.

The main objective of this IMPEL project has been to undertake an information exchange about real BREF use and BAT implementation, between IMPEL members and operational authorities in charge in the Member States of BREF diffusion and BAT implementation.

The objective of this project is to exchange information on the implementation of the VOC directive between experts and/or inspectors. During an IMPEL-workshop, information about VOC-regulations in the Directive and some national laws were presented to the participants. The main focus was the discussion of the prepared case studies in small working groups, which consisted of between 8 and 16 members each. The main results were:

The objectives of this work on emissions trading (phase I – III), were to pull together the various regulators and bodies involved with implementation and understand any differences in approach and any impact that might have on the functioning of the scheme. Wherever possible this should lead to harmonisation of operational practices and therefore a harmonisation of the operation of the scheme.

Cement production process is a complex industrial activity that can potentially affects environment with high impacts. Facing different experiences and know-hows demonstrated that monitoring only stack emissions cannot be an efficient control strategy; it’s important to implement an integrated control action that takes into account also production process and technologies adopted, as a stable and controlled process conduction is the first guarantee of compliance assurance.

IMPEL ran a series of projects in relation to energy efficiency. Energy efficiency in permitting and inspections (2010 – 2012) Energy is a priority issue within the European Union. The EU Climate Change and Energy Package foresees an increase in energy efficiency of 20% and a reduction of greenhouse gases by 20% by 2020. Since the 2002/2003 Finnish led IMPEL project on energy efficiency, a current evaluation has shown that only minor changes have occurred in the consideration of energy efficiency issues in permitting and supervising procedures. The project identified 7 main challenges concerning energy efficiency:

The air quality directive and its daughter directives have been implemented in EU member states in the past years. In 2007, an earlier IMPEL project (with Austria as lead partner) made it possible to exchange expertise in licensing of installations in ambient air polluted zones, based on an inquiry in some member states. A limited scope study in 2009 showed that directives have been implemented in practice in different ways in different IMPEL member states. Contacts between experts in these countries confirmed differences, leading to different air quality management activities with respect to permitting and enforcement of sectors of industries, traffic and shipping. However, not much is known about these different activities and their effects on the air quality itself. We do know, of course, that ambient air quality is effected also by traffic and shipping. This project however was limited to industrial emissions, bearing in mind the core focus of IMPEL and limited time and resources available.

The IPPC Directive 2008/1/EC (now IED 2010/75/EU) and Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC are two of the most wide-reaching items of EU environmental law. They have presented many challenges to the Member States. Installations regulated under IPPC may impact on the water environment, such as through direct or indirect discharges of pollutants, water abstraction, etc. IPPC requires installations to operate to conditions in permits compliant with Best Available Techniques (BAT). They are also required to respect environmental quality standards established in EU law, including those derived under EU water law. However, the relationship between the two sets of obligations is often far from simple.

The objective of this project was to organise an exchange of information concerning best practices for the implementation of article 23 and other inspection relevant articles of the IED. Taking into account the guidance on inspection planning and risk appraisal already developed by IMPEL as well as the requirements of the IED an interactive guidance book on IED inspection was developed.

On 6 January 2011 the Industrial Emissions Directive entered into force, and its provisions listed in Article 80(1) have to be transposed into national law within two years. Under the IED it is possible that for many industrial sectors reviews of existing permits will be required in order to address the requirements of the BAT Conclusions in the relevant BREF (Article 3(11) and 3(12)). Under existing Directives, Member States implement various systems to deal with changes taking place at facilities. These changes are made to permits in various formats and guises including agreed changes to Permits, variations to Permits, Technical Amendments to Permits and so on. Article 20 of the IED deals with changes by operators to installations and Article 63 deals with Substantial Change to existing installations. These provisions will require a new approach by Member States in how to decide if a full review of a Permit is required or is a more informal change approval system is adopted.

In 2009 a comparison programme on permitting and inspection of IPPC pig farming installations in IMPEL member countries was carried out (phase I). The project focused on five key issues: manure storage, manure spreading, animal housing system, air-abatement systems and odor assessment. The aim of the project in 2009 was to learn from each other, to exchange experiences and identify good practices.

The Environmental Inspection Cycle (EIC) describes step by step how environmental inspections should be planned and what to consider when executing the inspections. The EIC is also used by IMPEL as a framework where other IMPEL inspection initiatives can hook up on to create a better cohesion between the tools that are developed. Although there is a lot of experience in Europe in environmental permitting, the procedure itself has never been described in a step-by-step guidance. As a result there is no level playing field for the procedures of environmental permitting, there is no guidance for new permitting officers and there is less cohesion between the IMPEL initiatives on permitting.

The Baseline Report has been introduced in European law since only a few years. Nonetheless, some Member States have already acquired a considerable experience regarding soil investigations, with well established procedures based in some cases on decades of practical experience. The aim of the IED Baseline Report is primarily the assessment of the soil quality at the start of the renewal of the permit of a industrial activity as to establish an initial state. The objective is to provide a basis for comparison upon definitive closure of the activity, as to make possible the application of the “polluter pays principle” on a objective basis.

Article 15 paragraphs 4 & 5 of the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU (IED) allow IMPEL´Members to determine that in certain circumstances a less strict Emission Limit Value (ELV) than the BAT-AEL may be set in a permit. Member States are developing their own proposals for implementation which will subsequently be reviewed by the Commission. The Commission has not published guidance on how the determination should be carried out. This could lead to varying interpretations across IMPEL Member Countries. This project will aim to identify good practice and help regulators in IMPEL to develop a more consistent approach to IED derogations.

On 6 January 2011 the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) entered into force, and its provisions listed in Article 80(1) had to be transposed into national law within two years. The IED sets new requirements on the inspection of industrial installations as described in Article 23 of the Directive. The obligations on routine environmental inspections constitute a new challenge for the EU member states. IMPEL has already developed an Integrated Risk Assessment Method (IRAM) within the IMPEL easyTools project, as instrument to help member states to fulfil requirements of Article 23 of IED. Developing an Integrated Risk Assessment Method (IRAM) and the related IT tool, made it clear that a risk assessment tool should be used not only for IED inspections but also for inspections under the Seveso Directive and the RMCEI.

In the Directive on Industrial Emissions (IED) there are many references to hazardous substances and the risks deriving from them. Consequently it is worthwhile to explore: whether the requirements/obligations under REACH Regulation can be useful for permitting and inspection work; what changes in REACH formats for registration, applications for authorisation would be possible in order to be even more compatible and provide added-value for IED permitting and inspection, which consequences (including positive effects) REACH requirements have for permitting and inspection activities, and how to improve the synergies and complementary nature between these two pieces of legislation.

The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) commenced on 6th of January 2011. As listed in Article 80(1) its provisions must be transposed into national law within two years. Article 23 of the Directive states that the IED sets new requirements on the inspection of industrial installations.

Online Workshops on Operator self-monitoring air emissions were held on 28th September and 11thOctober 2021, organised by the IED Implementation IMPEL Project. The workshops were focused on Operator self-monitoring, on emissions to air, continuous and non-continuous, focused on the reliability of self-monitoring and its reporting by operators (duty-holders).