ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

Contaminated land exposure assessment (CLEA) tool

The CLEA software has been updated to version 1.07. This software and the accompanying handbook assist users in assessing the risk of contaminated land exposure to human health.

Recycled gypsum from waste plasterboard: quality protocol

This guidance sets out how gypsum can meet the quality protocol when it is no longer waste after recovery.

Using nitrogen fertilizers in nitrate vulnerable zones

This guidance is targeted towards anyone who uses manufactured fertilisers, manures or other materials that contain nitrogen on agricultural land in a nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ).

Storing organic manures in nitrate vulnerable zones

The Environment Agency has produced guidance on how to provide enough storage and keep storage records of organic manures in a nitrate vulnerable zone.

Non-packaging plastics: quality protocol

The Environment Agency has produced detailed guidance on how to know when recovered non-packaging plastics are no longer waste and subject to waste controls.

MCERTS: performance standard for indicative ambient particulate monitors

This guidance has been updated to include simplified test procedures for certification of monitors.

Revised Permitting Guidance

The following guidance has been updated to reflect that the Waste Incineration Directive has been incorporated into the Industrial Emissions Directive:

• RM-QG04: monitoring under the Waste Incineration Directive (WID) when continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMs) are not available

This guidance describes the Environment Agency’s requirements for waste incinerators when continuous emission monitoring systems are not available.

• RM-QG01: selecting continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMs)

This guidance describes the requirements for selecting new continuous emission monitoring systems for industrial installations regulated by the Environment Agency, and how they apply the Monitoring Certification Scheme (MCERTS).

• RM-QG02: selecting continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMs) for installations falling under the Waste Incineration Directive (WID)

• This guidance covers the requirements for continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMs), and applies to both incineration and co-incineration installations

SEPA

Guidance on suitable organic material applications for land restoration and improvement

This guidance provides checklist for those whom want to apply suitable organic materials for land restoration and improvement.

PPC-TG-32: Standard farming installation rules (how to comply) - Incorporating PPC permit application guidance

This guidance reflects SEPA’s view of BAT for a number of issues relating to intensive agricultural operations.

Darlington man ordered to pay back £350,000 for illegal waste sites

A Darlington man has been sentenced for running two illegal waste sites in Shildon and St Helen Auckland. The man illegally deposited, sorted and stored household and industrial waste.

On 24 February 2014 the man appeared at Teesside Crown Court where he was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years. Environment Agency officers then began proceedings to recover the value of his available assets that it’s believed was obtained through crime.

The man has been handed a confiscation order and ordered to pay back £350,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act and may have to pay back just under £1.2 million if he comes into future assets. Should he fail to pay, he could face a prison sentence.

Man fined for running illegal waste site

A Newcastle man has been fined £5,000 for illegally storing an estimated 1,500 waste tyres at a site in the city’s west end.

The man pleaded guilty to operating an illegal waste tyre storage facility when he appeared at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on 7 August 2015.

The man did not have a permit to operate the site and therefore committed an offence under Regulation 38 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 for breaching regulation 12(1), which requires that a permit is held for these operations.  

He was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,111.25, as well as a victim surcharge of £120.

The court also made him subject to a further order under Regulation 44 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010, which gave him three months to lawfully dispose of the tyres so the number at his premises does not exceed 200 at any time.

Business falls foul of all 3 producer responsibility regimes

Babz Media Limited, an online trading company operating from Bilton Road, Perivale, Middlesex, has been fined for non-compliance with environmental producer responsibility legislation across 3 separate material types:

• packaging materials;

• batteries; and

• electrical equipment.

  This represents the first such prosecution of this kind. 

  The company pleaded guilty to failing to register with the Environment Agency and a producer recycling scheme for packaging waste, waste batteries and electrical waste. Babz Media also pleaded guilty to avoiding the cost of financing the collection and recycling of the three waste streams between 2011 and 2013.

  The company was ordered to pay a total of £45,500 in fines, and £8,724.98 to the Environment Agency for the avoided registration fees and prosecution costs.