New publications this month:
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Comply with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)
This guidance document has been updated to reflect Phase 2 of the ESOS scheme. ESOS assessments are required to be completed and notified to the Environment Agency by an accredited lead assessor by 5 December 2019.
Regulatory Position Statements (RPSs)
The following RPSs were introduced or updated in February 2019:
This RPS has been updated to extend the deadline for tranche B specified generators to obtain a permit to 31 August 2019. The document has also been updated to state that where secondary abatement is needed, generators must meet the respective emissions limit values from 1 January 2019.
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD & RURAL AFFAIRS (DEFRA)
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collection: code of practice
This code practice provides guidance on how designated collection facilities and producer compliance schemes are to meet their responsibility to maximise separate collection of WEEE.
This code must be applied to meet the conditions of designated collection facility or producer compliance scheme approvals.
DEFRA & DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS)
Environmental reporting guidelines: including Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting and greenhouse gas reporting
Guidance is provided on non-financial reporting requirements that will apply to qualifying companies from 1 April 2019.
UK quoted companies will be required to report on global energy use as well as greenhouse gas emissions in their annual Directors’ Report. Large unquoted companies and limited liability partnerships will be required to report their annual energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency actions taken.
PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND
Use of potentially contaminated residential land, gardens and allotments
This document provides guidance for local authorities on the management of chemical-based soil contaminants.
NORTHERN IRELAND ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, SEPA & NATURAL RESOURCES WALES
GPP 26: Safe Storage of drums and intermediate bulk containers (IBCs)
A new Guidance for Pollution Prevention (GPP) document was published during February 2019. This provides guidance on the safe storage of drums and IBCs to prevent releases.
The guidance provides good practice advice in Wales but has yet to be reviewed to determine whether it provides acceptable regulatory guidance.
GPP 26 supersedes the withdrawn PPG 26 guidelines for the storage and handling of drums and IBCs. GPP 26 does not apply in England.
BREXIT UPDATE
Shipping radioactive waste and spent fuel after a no-deal Brexit
This new publication provides guidance on the transfrontier movement of spent fuel from to and from EU countries if the UK leaves without a deal.
Fluorinated gases and ozone-depleting substances: how to do business if the UK leaves the EU with no deal
This document provides guidance on the production, supply, trading, export or use of fluorinated greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances within equipment if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
This guidance document was updated during February 2019 to provide details of the UK’s hydrofluorocarbon quota system. This will replace the existing EU system on the date of the UK’s withdrawal. Quotas for UK business will continue to phase down in line with the remaining EU Member States.
Electrical waste fraudster ordered to repay over £1.3 million
A previously convicted waste criminal has been ordered to repay a large sum for defrauding government-backed household electrical waste recycling schemes.
The confiscation under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was brought by the Environment Agency after a financial investigation into the profit Terry Soloman Dugbo made from defrauding the electrical waste recycling industry. The investigation found that Dugbo had defrauded the industry of £2.2 million.
Dugbo was found guilty in 2016 of falsifying paperwork from his Leeds-based firm, TLC Recycling LTD, to illegitimately claim money through government-backed Producer Compliance Schemes for collecting and recycling over 19,500 tonnes of household electrical waste during 2011. In reality, the company had never handled the amounts of waste described and he was not entitled to the fees.
Dugbo has never been able to provide credible evidence to show what happened to the proceeds of his fraud.
The financial investigation into Dugbo’s realisable assets suggest he had benefitted £1,373,060.09 from his crimes. Environment Agency officers worked closely with HMRC, uncovering bank accounts in Nigeria, Senegal and Spain.
Mr Dugbo had contested the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 proceedings since 2016. He had also tried to reduce the previous benefits totalling more than £96,000 for convictions for VAT fraud in 2014 at Leeds Crown Court and exporting hazardous waste to Nigeria in 2011 at Basildon Crown Court.
During the current proceedings, the court heard Mr Dugbo had misled both courts by claiming that his assets had already been used to satisfy both of the earlier court orders when they had not.
The Judge in the proceedings ruled that Dugbo had claimed to have gambled away much of the assets he had acquired during the fraud, which the court rejected.
Order
Terry Soloman Dugbo who is currently serving seven years and six months in prison for environmental crimes for his fraudulent deeds was ordered to pay back £1,373,060.09 or face a further eight years in prison.
Operator of Middlesbrough mechanic and end-of-life vehicle business fined for permit breaches
A Teesside man has been fined after breaching an environmental permit and then failing to comply with an enforcement notice in Middlesbrough.
Environment Agency officers visited the site, which was a mechanic business which also dealt with scrap vehicles and oil contaminated vehicles parts, on 9 March 2017. Officers noted a number of issues, including:
The Environment Agency sent a report of their visit to the man, telling him what action needed to be carried out by April 2017 to bring the site back into compliance.
The Environment Agency returned to the site on 5 May 2017. The various improvements had not been completed.
A month later an Enforcement Notice was served with three requirements – namely to appoint a Technically Competent Manager (by 1 July 2017) and to repair the impermeable concrete surface and create a bund, and install a sealed drainage system (both by 30 November 2017).
On 4 December 2017 the Environment Agency visited the site again to find the issues had still not been rectified and further evidence of oil spills that had not been cleaned up.
Charges
Fazel Hussain was charged with breaching the permit for M&M Autos in Middlesbrough and failing to comply with an enforcement notice to make improvements.
Penalty
Fazel Hussain was fined £800, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £80 and costs of £5,000.
Natural Resources Wales revokes scrap yard permit
Natural Resources Wales has shut down a scrap yard operated by Clwyd Breakers Ltd in Ruabon, north east Wales to stop pollution of the local environment.
The regulator had labelled the yard as one of the worst performing waste sites in Wales. Despite repeated attempted by the regulator, the operators continued to breach their environmental permit.
Issues identified by Natural Resources Wales officers included visible oil pollution across the site, inadequate storage of polluting oils and fluids and other wastes and the failure to de-pollute cars properly. Additionally, the site was not subject to a fire prevention plan.
Some oils and other polluting fluids were also found to be being washed into drains. These eventually flowed via the Afon Goch and Black Brook into the Afon Clywedog and the Dee, threatening wildlife.
Action taken
Natural Resources Wales revoked the site’s permit. Therefore, the Clwyd Breakers Ltd may no longer store or dismantle cars which have reached the end of their life.
The site has now been cleared and Natural Resources Wales has concluded it no longer poses a threat to the local environment.
Furthermore, Natural Resources Wales has begun an investigation into another suspected illegal waste site in the area and potential links to the now cleared site.
