New publications this month:
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS (DEFRA)
Establishing Best Available Techniques for the UK (UK BAT)
The planned approach to determining UK Best Available Techniques Conclusions (BATCs) post-Brexit is detailed within this document. This process will be led by the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments alongside the Northern Ireland Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).
UK BAT will be established by technical working groups for each industrial sector. Public consultations will be undertaken during the development of the draft BATC and on draft BATC documents. The final BATC documents will be published as a statutory instrument.
As with the EU BATC, permitted organisations within the scope of each BATC will have four years before BAT are implemented.
The first four industry sectors to establish BATC groups will be the following. Technical working groups are expected to be established from September 2022 with the publication of BATC for these sectors in the second half of 2023:
Storm overflows discharge reduction plan
This plan sets targets on water companies to reduce storm overflows:
Ending the retail sale of peat in horticulture in England and Wales: Response to consultation
Defra has confirmed that the sale of peat and peat containing products for domestic horticultural use will be banned by 2024.
DEFRA, WELSH GOVERNMENT, ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, WATER SERVICES REGULATION AUTHORITY AND NATURAL RESOURCES WALES
Supplementary guidance: drainage and wastewater management plans for storm overflows
This supplementary guidance was published on drainage and wastewater management plants for sewage treatment plant storm overflows. These plans must be produced in draft for consultation in 2022 and finalised in 2023.
DEFRA AND ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Pollution prevention for businesses
Guidance has been added on maintaining oil separators.
Incumbent F gas quota holders and authorisation managers in Great Britain
This document provides a list of all Fluorinated gas incumbent quota holders and authorisation managers in Great Britain for 2021-23.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Develop a management system: environmental permits
Climate change adaptation risk assessment guidance for environmental permit applicants and holders has been transferred to this document. Advice given has been extended.
MCERTS: performance standards and test procedures for event duration monitors
This new MCERTS standard applies requirements on event duration monitors.
Landspreading: how to manage soil health
Guidance has been updated on benefit statements for landspreading applications. This now requires that soil analysis should be no more than four years old for nutrient and pH amendments.
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS) AND OFGEM
Electricity Networks Strategic Framework: Enabling a secure, net zero energy system
This document presents actions the Government and Ofgem are taking on the electricity network.
SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
Offshore renewable energy: decommissioning guidance for Scottish waters
Guidance has been published for developers and owners of offshore renewable energy installations regarding their statutory decommissioning obligations.
WELSH GOVERNMENT
The Draft Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Wales) Bill
This draft Bill is intended to prohibit the supply of a range of single-use plastic products, including cups, straws, cutlery, drink stirrers, plastic bags, cotton buds and plates.
Flood and coastal erosion risk management: adapting to climate change
This document, which provides advice on considering the impacts of climate change in flood and coastal erosion risk management projects and strategies, has been updated.
Warwickshire excavation company fined for allowing sediment-contaminated water to enter a brook
During May 2018, AT Contracting and Plant Hire Limited allowed water contaminated with sediment to enter a tributary of Padbury Brook near Barton Hartshorn in Buckinghamshire.
Following this incident, the company proposed an Enforcement Undertaking to the Environment Agency, which was accepted. The Environment Agency accepted the company’s negligence wasn’t down to dangerous or foolhardy behaviour and that the company had worked quickly to solve the issue and taken full responsibility for the incident.
Enforcement Undertaking
AT Contracting and Plant Hire Limited paid £15,000 to the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.
In addition to the £15,000 payment, the company completed a number of other actions. This included stopping the discharge, removing the pollutant from the watercourse and improving water management.
Enforcement undertakings allow companies and individuals to make good some of the environmental damage they cause, including through a financial contribution to an environmental project.
Fines for the illegal export of banned household waste
A former company director has been fined for exporting banned household waste.
Between 27 and 15 July 2019 the man had caused his company to export some 382 tonnes of household waste in 22 sea containers from its site in Droitwich via Southampton and Felixstowe. The waste included 1,590 nappies and sanitary items, 1,338 electrical items and 33,639 tins and cans. The illegal cargo was bound for Indonesia. The man had agreed to sell tonnes of plastic bottle waste to a broker at £270 per tonne.
Other contaminants found in searches by investigators from the Environment Agency were items of clothing, textiles and rags, unopened plastic bags, glass, wood, golf balls, toys, a used toilet brush and food and drink cartons.
The offence was discovered on 4 July 2019 by Environment Agency officers who conducted initial inspections of some of the containers. The inspections recorded significant evidence of contamination, flies and, in some containers, a rotting decomposing smell. The containers were deemed unfit for export at that stage and prevented from onward shipment to Indonesia. All the containers were returned to the site in Droitwich for reprocessing.
Breach
The man was charged with breaching Regulation 55(1) of the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007:
The man had previously pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing his dissolved company, Berry Polymer Ltd, to export the waste.
Penalty
The man was fined £1,200 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.
Man jailed after he illegally imported and burnt waste
A man from Essex has been jailed after he persistently imported and burnt waste on a large scale at 2 sites in Essex.
In June 2020, officers visited land at Bradwell-on-Sea after firefighters raised concerns following several fires at the site. The officers found large quantities of waste on the site, including waste electricals, household waste, and demolition waste. They also discovered piles of burned waste.
The officers made several further visits and attempted to work with the man, offering him opportunities to stop his activities and clear the site. The man failed to clear the site and gave officers several different, conflicting accounts.
In September 2020, officers attended another site owned by the man in Latchingdon. They found piles of burning waste. Essex Fire and Rescue attended and discovered a gas cylinder amongst the embers before immediately requesting fire engines to attend.
Environment Agency officers identified large piles of soils heavily contaminated with bricks, concrete, paving slabs, and plastics. They were told by a fire officer that the site was a “cause for concern”.
The man was given chances to stop depositing, spreading and burning waste at the site. He was advised that all waste on site must be removed by a licensed waste carrier. The man failed to engage with this.
The man was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment. An order was also made requiring the man to clean up both sites upon his release from prison.
The man was also ordered to return to court in September 2023 for the consideration of claims for prosecution costs and the confiscation of the proceeds of his crimes.
