Environment Agency
The standards you must meet to close your landfill site and move it into aftercare.
When you stop accepting waste at your landfill site, you can start to close it. This is complete when your local Environment Agency officer agrees your site is definitely closed in writing. This confirms closure for either:
- the whole site
- part of a site (partial closure)
Temporary cessation (mothballing) is when you stop accepting waste for more than 12 months. Where your local Environment Agency officer agrees it, they will reduce your annual subsistence charge for a maximum of 2 years. See the environmental permittingcharging scheme, Part 3, paragraph 15(b).
The Environment Agency will not agree temporary cessation where you start the closure process. Starting the closure process means you have no plans to re-start disposal operations.
You do not need to apply to change (vary) your permit for temporary cessation. See the section of this guide on change (vary) your permit: definite closure.
All landfill sites that stopped waste disposal before July 2001 are closed. They are in aftercare.
Landfill sites not subject to the Landfill Directive
If you stopped operating your landfill before July 2001 you do not need to comply with the Landfill Directive. You do not need a closure report.
You must comply with theWaste Framework Directive, article 13. You must:
- comply with your permit conditions to protect air, land and water, for example to manage and monitor emissions of landfill leachate and gas
- maintain yourwritten management system or working planto show that your site infrastructure and management systems are fit for purpose
- review your groundwater or hydrogeological risk assessment every 6 years, where your permit requires it
A hydrogeological risk assessment includes any assessment you did under Regulation 15 of theWaste Management Licensing Regulations 1994.
Landfill sites subject to the Landfill Directive
Article 13(a) of the Directive says a landfill or part of it starts the closure process when either:
- you are compliant with the conditions in your permit
- you ask the Environment Agency and they approve it (early closure)
- the Environment Agency decides your site must close and they issue aclosure notice(Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016, schedule 10, paragraph 10)
If you continued waste disposal after July 2001, to definitely close your landfill you must:
- comply with the relevant parts of theLandfill Directive, for example article 13 and annex I and III
- be compliant with your permit
- send a closure report to yourlocal Environment Agency officer for their approval
Permit compliance
Your local Environment Agency officer will only review your closure report if you are compliant with your permit.
Before you prepare your closure report, you must review and update your operating techniques or management plans. This ensures:
- you are complaint with the operating techniques condition of your permit
- they are up to date before your site enters aftercare
Read Develop and maintain management plans.
Your local Environment Agency officer must agree changes to the operating techniques listed in your permit (normally table S1.2).
Start to plan site closure and discuss it with your local Environment Agency officer at least 2 years before you send them your closure report. This gives you time to:
- review and update your operating techniques or management plans
- prepare your closure report
- apply to vary your permit to make the site compliant, where necessary
If you are not compliant and you want tochange (vary) your permit, for example to change compliance limits, you must do this before you send your closure report to your local Environment Agency officer. You must pay for this application. Check table 1.17 in the environmental permittingcharging scheme.
Early closure
If you want to close your landfill before it has reached the settlement levels in your permit (early closure), you must get written agreement from your local Environment Agency officer. You may also need to agree this with the local planning authority. Early closure includes where you decide to leave areas of your site unfilled.
For your local Environment Agency officer to decide, you must send them the profile and stability of any waste slopes (including a stability risk assessment, where necessary).
Where early closure will leave areas of the site unfilled, you must also send them your proposed changes to:
- groundwater and surface water management
- the landfill gas and leachate collection system
- the capping design, including its stability
- operating techniques, management plans or closure and aftercare plan
Your local Environment Agency officer must agree you can close early before you send them your closure report.
Closure report
Your closure report must include the following information. It may be separate or refer to your operating techniques or management plans. You must send your closure report to yourlocal Environment Agency officer. They will either agree it in writing or tell you what else you need to do. You can use this closure report template.
Plans and drawings
You must tell the Environment Agency which parts of your landfill you are closing on a site plan. If you are closing the whole site, they will accept the site plan in your permit. Your site plan must be a minimum scale of 1:2500.
Where your permit requires you to actively manage leachate or landfill gas, you must include a plan of the locations of the on-site:
- extraction wells or boreholes
- pipework
- plant and equipment
Where your permit requires you to monitor leachate, landfill gas, groundwater or surface water, you must include a plan of the locations of the monitoring points or boreholes.
Where you are managing surface water, for example run-off from a cap, you must include a plan of the location of all drains and ditches. You must include the location of any discharge point to controlled water including soakaways.
You must include the location of th