Environment Agency
If youre applying for a new permit or already have a permit, read this guide to find out:
- how to monitor emissions from your activity
- how to operate within any emissions limits that you might get in your permit
- what to do if the Environment Agency tell you that youre causing pollution
- what to do if you need to write a plan for emissions, odour, noise and vibration or pest management
Use your risk assessment to help you identify emissions from your site. Read how to do a risk assessment if you have not done one yet.
You must show how you will control your emissions in your management system. If you have a waste, mining waste or installation permit you may need to write plans to explain how youll deal with emissions, odour, noise and vibration or pests. These plans will become part of your overall management system.
Permit conditions
Most conditions are objective-based: the Environment Agency defines what the objective is but its up to you how you meet an objective. For example, an objective at a composting site could be to use measures to make sure odour does not cause pollution outside your sites boundary.
This guide will help you work out how to meet an objective (what the appropriate measures you should use are). You should also follow the specific technical guidance for your particular type of activity or for the type of pollution (for example, odour and bioaerosol).
Conditions will be prescriptive if theres a high risk from your activity or site that needs to be controlled. In these cases the condition will tell you exactly what you need to do, for example by:
- stating the equipment you must use
- defining a specific emission limit you must comply with
- telling you to implement a plan which the Environment Agency has approved
You must follow all the conditions in your permit or you could be breaking the law. If you cause pollution the Environment Agency may suspend or cancel your permit.
Pollution
You must follow the conditions in your permit which tell you to prevent or minimise pollution.Pollution is any emission as a result of your operations which may:
- be harmful to human health or the quality of the environment, for example ecosystems on land or water
- cause offence to a human sense, for example hearing (apart from standalone surface or groundwater discharges)
- cause damage to property
- damage or interfere with amenities or other uses of the environment
Point source emissions
Your permit may set limits on emissions to air, water or land from point sources (emissions from one or more set points), for example:
- discharges to infiltration systems (drainage fields)
- exhaust gas from a boiler stack
- waste water or treated sewage discharge from an effluent treatment plant outlet pipe
- emission of bioaerosols from open processes or sources or point source release from stacks
There may be more than one type of emission from a specific point, for example an effluent treatment plant outlet pipe might release treated effluent and surface water drainage.
Emissions that do not have set limits
There are some types of emission that may cause pollution but do not have set limits in permit conditions. In permits these are called emissions not controlled by emissions limits or fugitive emissions.
For waste, mining waste and installations these include:
- dust
- fumes
- flies
- vermin
- mud
- litter
For water discharge activities and groundwater activities there may be things in the discharge that do not have set limits in your permit.
You must control these emissions and make sure they do not cause pollution.
Emissions management plan
If your risk assessment shows you have a risk of these types of emissions you may need to provide an emissions management plan when you apply for your permit to demonstrate how youll control them.
If you cause pollution from these types of emissions but do not already have an emissions management plan, the Environment Agency may ask you to submit a plan to them.
Dust, mud and litter
If you have a waste, installation or mining waste permit you must use appropriate measures to prevent emissions of dust and particulates, including bioaerosols, mud and litter.
The following are suggested appropriate measures, but you may also need to use other measures.
Site layout, housekeeping and operations
Appropriate measures include:
- designing the layout of your site to prevent emissions and limit the emissions sensitive receptors are exposed to for example homes, schools, hospitals or nursing homes, food preparation facilities or similar
- using good housekeeping practices to make sure your site is clear of dust, mud, litter and other debris
- using road sweepers to remove dust, mud, litter and other debris
- erecting litter fences or micro-netting around the site
- avoiding activities that could spread dust and particulates, mud or litter during high winds for example, loading and unloading waste from vehicles outside buildings or treating waste materials outside buildings
- making sure treatment process parameters, such as temperature or moisture, are set at the right level
- making sure abatement systems are designed to treat and minimise releases these systems must be monitored and maintained following the designers or manufacturers recommendations
Enclosure in buildings
Appropriate measures include:
- carrying out operations inside buildings using negative pressure dust extraction systems whenever possible
- installing PVC strip curtains to reduce emissions through doorways
- installing automatic, fast-closing doors and designing doorways and openings in a way that prevents through-drafts
- enclosing conveyors and minimising drops, or using pneumatic or screw conveying systems
- installing filters to vents on silos, building extractors and conveying systems
- using abatement systems that are designed, monitored and maintained by qualified personnel
If your site is in London Borough or an air quality management area for PM10 (particles of 10 micrometers or less) then you may need to carry out your activities inside a building (excluding landfill and deposit for recovery activities).
Vehicle movement
Appropriate measures include:
- using enclosed vehicles, skips or containers wherever possible, or covering them if this is not possible (unless theyre empty)
- enforcing speed limits and reducing vehicle movements and idling on site
- minimising the number of access points to your site from public roads
- surfacing or paving your roadways suitably (ideally with concrete) to make them easy to clean
- making sure vehicles keep to paved roads
- regularly cleaning and dampening roadways
- using wheel wash systems to slow trucks wash wheels and keep roadways damp
- making sure road-going vehicles do not enter unmade ground and muddy areas (including the tipping piles) to reduce muddy track-out
Dust suppression and monitoring
Appropriate measures include:
- using appropriate dust suppression systems (such as mist sprays, bowsers, water cannons, chemical suppressants, heavy water and foam suppressants) at appropriate locations and times
- installing dust and particulate monitors with trigger alarms
Stockpiled wastes and open ground
You must keep stockpile levels at least 0.5m below the top of structures holding the waste to minimise wind-whipping at all times.
Other appropriate measures include:
- controlling the moisture content of the material in the stockpile to prevent materials becoming friable
- planting grass or trees on open ground to reduce dust (hydro-seeding can rapidly establish vegetation on waste tips, slag heaps or other apparently infertile ground)
- not positioning stockpiles outdoors or leaving them uncovered
If you cannot avoid positioning stockpiles outdoors, or leaving them uncovered, you should take steps to prevent material escaping from them. For example by:
- using sprays and binders
- appropriately positioning bay walls or windbreaks
- making sure stockpiles do not face the direction of the prevailing wind
- minimising waste storage heights and volumes
- cover