New publications this month:

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

MCERTS: examination syllabuses for manual stack emission monitoring

Examination syllabuses for manual stack emission monitoring under MCERTS have been updated. Questions on EN ISO 16911-1:2013 will be introduced into examinations for Technical Endorsement 1 from 1 March 2016.  

Waste batteries and accumulators: technical guidance

This guidance document has been updated to reflect that any battery above 4kg will be classed as industrial by default from 1 January 2016.

HTGN M3: How to assess monitoring arrangements for emissions to air in permit applications

Technical guidance note (Monitoring) M3 has been updated.

Background

This technical guidance note provides guidance to Environment Agency staff, monitoring contractors and industry.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): reuse and treatment

This document has been updated to provide more guidance on the recovery and recycling rate template.

Background

This document provides guidance on how to apply to become an approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) and how to operate legally under the approval.

WEEE: evidence and national protocols guidance

What has been updated?

This updated document includes guidance on the recovery and recycling rate template.

Background

This guidance document explains how to issue evidence, meet and report on recovery and recycling targets and apply protocols on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

THE OIL AND PIPELINE AGENCY

Oil and Pipelines Agency: Major accident prevention policy

This updated document sets out the major accident prevention policy created by the oil and pipeline agency.

Background

Regulation 5 of the COMAH Regulations requires all COMAH operators to prepare a document setting out their policy for preventing major accidents (MAPP)

NABARRO LLP: JANUARY 2016 ENVIRONMENT BRIEFING

The meaning of ‘environmental damage’

Case: R (Seiont, Gwyrfai and Llyfni Anglers' Society) v Natural Resources Wales and others (2015)

This case considered in detail the scope of the concept of "environmental damage" under the Environmental Liability Directive 2004 (the Directive) and the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (Wales) Regulations 2009 (the Regulations).

The court held that "environmental damage" means a deterioration of the environmental condition. It does not include the prevention or slowing of an already damaged environmental state from achieving an acceptable level in environmental terms.

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS AND ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collection: code of practice

This guidance document sets out how a designated collection facility (DCF) must manage its separately collected WEEE.

This code sets out:

• why it exists and who it applies to
• minimum operational standards
• guidance on what the contract must include
• enforcement action for non-compliance

Oxfordshire company guilty of allowing waste crime

A court has heard how an investigation by the Environment Agency identified that an illegal skip hire business was operated between 2010 and 2013 near Farringdon in Oxfordshire. The skip hire business was operated by Tapecrown Ltd and another tenant deposited large quantities of tyres on the site.

Oxford Crown Court heard that Tapecrown Ltd allowed the storage, treatment and burning of waste at the Faringdon premises without the necessary permits. Environmental permits must be held authorising these operations, unless a suitable waste management exemption is available.

Breach and penalty

Tapecrown Ltd was fined £20,000 and Mr Crossley Cooke was fined £4,000. Further costs for the company and Mr Cooke will be determined at a later date. Mr Cooke was classed as the controlling mind of Tapecrown Limited and was therefore prosecuted.

Yorkshire Water fined £600,000 after sewage pollution hits Wakefield fishery

Yorkshire Water Services Ltd has received a large fine after it was found that it had been negligent in the maintenance of sewage pipework. In October 2013 a sewage pipe from the company’s Shay Lane pumping station burst, resulting the discharge of raw sewage to the Walton Colliery Nature Park and Barnsley Canal. More than 860 dead fish were subsequently removed from these water bodies.

The court heard that four bursts had occurred on the sewage pipe in the preceding two years. In each case Yorkshire Water had attributed this to the age-related deterioration of the pipe.

Breach and penalty

Yorkshire Water Services Ltd has been fined £600,000 after an ageing sewage pipe burst and killed hundreds of fish in a Wakefield lake. The company pleaded guilty to one charge of causing a water discharge that was not authorised by an environmental permit.

Thames Water fined £1 million for pollution to Grand Union Canal

Thames Water has received the highest fine ever issued to a water company in a prosecution to date.

The court heard that Thames Water caused repeated discharges of polluting matter from Tring Sewage Treatment Works to enter the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal in Hertfordshire between July 2012 and April 2013. Discharged sewage can have a significant adverse impact on organisms within water bodies.

Thames Water holds a permit to discharge treated effluent to the canal from the works. The court heard that ineffective inlet screens had caused equipment at the works to block. This lead to the release of sewage debris and sludge. Breach and penalty

Thames Water pleaded guilty before Watford Magistrates Court to two charges under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010. St Albans Crown Court ordered the company to pay a fine of £1 million, costs of £18,113.08 and a victim surcharge of £120.