Unit 6:  Current Legislation Affecting UK Industry: Atmosphere

6.2.4  Assessing Environmental Harm

For IPC regulated processes, operators need to ensure that BATNEEC is used to prevent, or where this is not feasible, minimise and render harmless releases of prescribed substances into the environment. Coupled with this, where releases into more than one medium are present, the operator of the process needs to use the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) in order to lessen the effect upon the environment on the whole.

Such concepts are of fundamental importance to Schedule A process authorisations, and to the regulators in making decisions concerning the granting of authorisations. Environmental harm is regulated by the, adoption of a framework by the assessors in dealing with prescribed process releases in which the following is considered:

  1. Identification and quantification of releases.
  2. Compliance of releases with statutory emission limits.
  3. Screening exercise to identify environmental significant releases.
  4. Assessment of whether the releases will conform with future statutory environmental quality objectives.
  5. Determination of the environmental acceptability of the releases.
  6. Identification of the BPEO deriving from a selection of environmentally sound choices.
  7. Identification of the process and the necessary environmental monitoring.
Figures 5 and 6 often prove to be the most complex in assessing an authorisation application. In order to make a sound assessment of a pollutant's impact on the environment, it is necessary to have a detailed knowledge of its structure, physical, chemical and biological properties, fluctuations with the seasons, persistence within the environment and biodegradability. It is not always an easy process in finding such information. Hence, with lack of accuracy here, the BPEO will be more difficult to determine. What is most important for you to remember here is that the emphasis is upon you using BATNEEC. The regulators will require you to keep looking for information and providing them with the relevant technical data until you satisfy them that you are, or will use BATNEEC to ensure that all your releases are harmless.