Environmental Permit Applications
An Environmental Permit is needed if any of the following activities are carried out on a site:
- Production of potentially harmful substances, for example:
- landfill site
- large chicken farm
- food factory
- furniture factory
- dry cleaners
- petrol station
- Waste Sites
- Recycling, storage, treatment, or disposal of waste
- Management of waste produced from mines or quarries
- Burning certain types and quantities of waste
- Releasing organic solvents directly or indirectly into the air
- Operate medium combustion plant (MCP) or specified generators
- Operate plant that is designed to move or be moved, for example:
- a machine that is moved onto a site to clean contaminated soil
Permit Types and Risk Assessments
There are two types of Environmental Permit available:
- Standard Permit
- Requires the permit‐holder to abide by a set of standard rules
- Quicker to apply for, involve simpler processing and have clear guidance
- Bespoke Permit
- Required where activity does not fit into the standard rules
- Has conditions that are specific to the activity that the permit‐holder is performing
If proposed activity can meet all the requirements for a Standard Permit pre-written Generic Risk Assessments provided by the Environment Agency (EA) may be used. Site-specific Risk Assessments are however needed before a Bespoke Permit is granted.
Approach to Risk Assessment
At Syntegra, our air quality consultants are experienced in undertaking Risk Assessments to supplement both Standard and Bespoke Environmental Permits. Our experts adopt the following approach when delivering assessments tailored to an individual site and the specified activities to be undertaken:
- Identify and consider risks, and the sources of the risks, for the site
- Find the receptors at risk from the site (for example people, animals, property, and anything else that could be affected by the hazard)
- Identify the possible pathways from the sources of the risks to the receptors
- Assess risks relevant to the specific activity and check they are acceptable and can be screened out
- State what will be done to control risks if they are too high
- Submit the risk assessment as part of the permit application
- Include a copy of your risk assessment in the management system
