The legal basis for the annual environmental reporting obligations applying to both EPA-licensed and non EPA-licensed industrial and waste management facilities annual environmental returns are as follows:
The PRTR Regulations are the European Communities (European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) Regulation 2007, S.I. No. 123 of 2007, S.I. No. 649 of 2011 and the E-PRTR Regulation, (EC) No 166/2006, concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register.
As set out in the PRTR Regulations, releases of pollutants and off-site transfers of waste by facilities operating in relevant industrial sectors will be reported by the EPA to the European E-PRTR website where the facility exceeds specified thresholds for the Capacity of the activity (Annex I of the PRTR Regulations) and for the quantities of the emissions (Annex II of the PRTR Regulations) and/or waste transfers (Article 5 1 (b) of the PRTR Regulations) from the facility. Following the coming into force of the PRTR Regulations on 22 March 2007 & 13 December 2011, there is now an obligation on all EPA-licensed facilities, and on operators in certain other industrial sectors, to make returns, in the form and content specified by the EPA, of their annual Releases (emissions) and Off-Site Waste Transfers for each calendar year by 31 March of the following year. The first calendar year to be reported under the PRTR Regulations was 2007, with reporting by operators required to be completed by 31 March 2008.
The PRTR Regulations apply to a number of non EPA-licensed activity sectors. In the Irish context, these sectors, and the applicable capacity thresholds above which facilities must report under PRTR Regulations, are:
Capacity Threshold (PRTR Regulations Annex I)
The same reporting requirements apply to the operators of non EPA-licensed facilities falling under the PRTR Regulations. Reporting for the calendar year is required to be completed by 31 March of the following year.
The requirements for reporting of Annual Environmental Information arise under individual EPA licences issued under the EPA Acts 1992 – 2008, the Waste Management Acts 1996 – 2008, the Waste Water Discharge (Authorisation) Regulations S.I. 684 of 2007 and other legislation.
The Annual Environmental Report (AER) is a standard requirement of all IPC / IPPC licences issued by the EPA. The AER is a single report by a licensee on their facility’s environmental performance in the previous calendar year. An AER also sets out the programme of environmental works that the licensee is planning for the coming year. A key component of the AER is the Summary of Emissions and Waste Transfers, which is the information directly relevant to the PRTR Regulations.
The content and subject matter of the AER is specified in the relevant Schedule of your Licence. The EPA Guidance Note on the Annual Environmental Report provides guidance for compiling all of the necessary information on emissions, waste transfers and environmental performance of the facility for the purposes of compiling a suitable AER.
[1] The term “Surface area effectively under extractive operation” means the surface of the area of the site reduced by the surface of the rehabilitated area and by the area of future excavation. Note that all in-site transport, processing, storage and associated facilities, including settlement lagoons, are to be included within this definition. (Source: EU PRTR Guidance Document May 2006).
