The chemical companies ask for improve the IPPC regulations
Taking into account the important obligations that presents this law, that all affected by the same existing facilities must request such authorization by January 1, 2007 to operate, the Government prepares currently a regulation allowing adequate implementation and development.
Thus, last February began to circulate a new draft Royal Decree by which will be adopted that regulation, which aims to establish a series of measures, mainly of procedure, to facilitate the processing of the administrative files of authorization from installations. However, the presented draft are detected various shortcomings which, in the view of Feique, must be correct.
Identified gaps
With regard to the scope of the authorisation, the draft raised that "once issued integrated environmental authorization, not may start unless the competent authority has checked the adequacy of the installation to the provisions of the above-mentioned authorization environmental conditional"which is - in the opinion of the management of the sector - surprising because it is impossible that the Administration verify compliance with the limits of emissions or discharges into a facility that cannot be launched. "It is a section that should be deleted, because not even subjected to the Administration for a period of time to exercise such verification, which could cause that a facility was unlimited paralysed despite having proper authority".
And whether this paragraph should be deleted it is essential to include one in which to develop the figure of the simplified procedure, proposes Feique. "This figure, that the law required to develop regulations, appears in the Royal Decree, but only to indicate that the simplified procedure, de facto, is exactly equal to the ordinary procedure."
Another aspect that should clarify the future regulation, Feique believes, is the the urban report which is required for authorization, since there may be existing facilities which obtained its licence of activity with a particular urbanistic plan, and subsequent plans have changed their rating. In this case the legal licence obtained in its day should be replacement of the urban report at the time of the authorization. "In other words, if I live in a house built in an area as residential land, although my City Council recalifique the soil such as industrial, I it cannot force to leave".
One aspect which is also improved for the chemical sector is the recognition for those companies to implement systems of environmental management (EMS), already that if well indicated that a certification of such expedited mechanisms for verification of the fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the authorization, do not identify expressly the EMS will give right to do so, which could lead to an autonomous community exclusively recognized ISO 14001 and in another the EMAS, as it is usual for companies to have centres in different communities with the same certification. "It would therefore be desirable to appoint explicitly in the regulation the EMS will give right to the application of this criterion, which would also generate a higher volume of certificates between companies," claim.
This would determine which contrary to the provisions of the legislation in Europe, in Spain would be affected subsectors expressly excluded such as the manufacture of detergents, creating an unacceptable discrimination compared to the rest of the EU Member States.
"In short, and so serve as drafts,-concludes Feique in its communiqué-must be carried out several improvements in the proposal, especially so that the regulation allows its perfect development and not settle contradictions with the law itself which serves".