The Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

Made: 31 January 2003

Coming into operation: 31 March 2003

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PART 1 — GENERAL

Citation and commencement

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Interpretation: general

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Interpretation: “best available techniques”

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Fit and proper person

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Application to the Crown

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Applications

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Discharge and scope of functions

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Appointment of chief inspector and other inspectors

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PART 2 — PERMITS

Requirement for permit to operate installation and mobile plant

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Permits: general provisions

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Conditions of permits: general principles

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Conditions of permits: specific requirements

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Conditions of permits: Department’s notice in relation to emissions into water

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General binding rules

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Review of conditions of permits

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Proposed change in the operation of an installation

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Variation of conditions of permits

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Transfer of permits

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Application to surrender a permit for a Part A installation or Part A mobile plant

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Notification of surrender of a permit for a Part B or Part C installation or Part B or Part C mobile plant

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Revocation of permits

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Fees and charges in relation to permits

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PART 3 — ENFORCEMENT

Duty of the enforcing authority to ensure compliance with conditions

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Enforcement notices

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Suspension notices

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Power of the enforcing authority to prevent or remedy pollution

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Powers of inspectors and others

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PART 4 — APPEALS

Appeals from decisions with respect to permits

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PART 5 — INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY

Information

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Public registers of information

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Exclusion from registers of information affecting national security

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Exclusion from registers of certain confidential information

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PART 6 — PROVISION AS TO OFFENCES

Offences

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Enforcement by High Court

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Admissibility of evidence

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Power of court to order cause of offence to be remedied

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PART 7 — THE DEPARTMENT'S POWERS

Directions to enforcing authorities

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Guidance to enforcing authorities

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Plans relating to emissions

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PART 8 — MISCELLANEOUS AND SUPPLEMENTAL PROVISIONS

Disclosure of information

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Consequential amendments

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SCHEDULE 1 — ACTIVITIES, INSTALLATIONS AND MOBILE PLANT

PART 1 — ACTIVITIES

CHAPTER 1 — ENERGY INDUSTRIES

SECTION 1.1 — COMBUSTION ACTIVITIES

Part A

• (a) Burning any fuel in an appliance with a rated thermal input of 50 megawatts or more.

• (b) Burning any of the following fuels in an appliance with a rated thermal input of 3 megawatts or more but less than 50 megawatts unless the activity is carried out as part of a Part B or Part C activity–

• (i) waste oil;

• (ii) recovered oil;

• (iii) any fuel manufactured from, or comprising, any other waste.

Interpretation of Part A

For the purpose of paragraph (a), where two or more appliances with an aggregate rated thermal input of 50 megawatts or more are operated on the same site by the same operator those appliances shall be treated as a single appliance with a rated thermal input of 50 megawatts or more.

Part B

Nil.

Part C

Unless falling within paragraph (a) of Part A of this Section–

• (a) Burning any fuel, other than a fuel mentioned in paragraph (b) of Part A of this Section, in a boiler or furnace or a gas turbine or compression ignition engine with, in the case of any of these appliances, a rated thermal input of 20 megawatts or more but less than 50 megawatts.

• (b) Burning any of the following fuels in an appliance with a rated thermal input of less than 3 megawatts–

• (i) waste oil;

• (ii) recovered oil;

• (iii) a solid fuel which has been manufactured from waste by an activity involving the application of heat.

• (c) Burning fuel manufactured from or including waste, other than a fuel mentioned in paragraph (b) in any appliance–

• (i) with a rated thermal input of less than 3 megawatts but at least 0.4 megawatts; or

• (ii) which is used together with other appliances which each have a rated thermal input of less than 3 megawatts, where the aggregate rated thermal input of all the appliances is at least 0.4 megawatts.

Interpretation of Part C

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Interpretation of Section 1.1

For the purpose of this Section–

• “waste oil” means any mineral based lubricating or industrial oil which has become unfit for the use for which it was intended, such as used combustion engine oil, gearbox oil, mineral lubricating oil, oil for turbines and hydraulic oil;

• “recovered oil” means waste oil which has been processed before being used.

SECTION 1.2 — GASIFICATION, LIQUEFACTION AND REFINING ACTIVITIES

Part A

• (a) Refining gas.

• (b) Reforming natural gas.

• (c) Operating coke ovens.

• (d) Coal or lignite gasification.

• (e) Producing gas from oil or other carbonaceous material or from mixtures thereof, other than from sewage, unless the production is carried out as part of an activity which is a combustion activity (whether or not that combustion activity is described in Section 1.1).

• (f) Purifying or refining any product of any of the activities falling within paragraphs (a) to (e) or converting it into a different product.

• (g) Refining mineral oils.

• (h) The loading, unloading or other handling of, the storage of, or the physical, chemical or thermal treatment of–

• (i) crude oil;

• (ii) stabilised crude petroleum;

• (iii) crude shale oil;

• (iv) where related to another activity described in this paragraph, any associated gas or condensate;

• (v) emulsified hydrocarbons intended for use as a fuel.

• (i) The further refining, conversion or use (otherwise than as a fuel or solvent) of the product of any activity falling within paragraphs (g) or (h) in the manufacture of a chemical.

• (j) Activities involving the pyrolysis, carbonisation, distillation, liquefaction, gasification, partial oxidation, or other heat treatment of coal (other than the drying of coal), lignite, oil, other carbonaceous material or mixtures thereof otherwise than with a view to making charcoal.

Interpretation of Part A

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Part B

• (a) Odorising natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas, except where that activity is related to a Part A activity.

• (b) Blending odorant for use with natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas.

• (c) The storage of petrol in stationary storage tanks at a terminal, or the loading or unloading of petrol into or from road tankers, rail tankers or inland waterway vessels at a terminal, where the total quantity of petrol loaded from the stationary storage tanks into road tankers, rail tankers or inland waterway vessels in any 12 month period is likely to be equal to or greater than 10,000 tonnes.

Part C

• (a) The storage of petrol in stationary storage tanks at a terminal, or the loading or unloading of petrol into or from road tankers, rail tankers or inland waterway vessels at a terminal where the total quantity of petrol loaded from the stationary storage tanks into road tankers, rail tankers or inland waterway vessels in any 12 month period is likely to be less than 10,000 tonnes.

• (b) The unloading of petrol into stationary storage tanks at a service station, if the total quantity of petrol unloaded into such tanks at the service station in any period of 12 months is likely to be 500m³ or more.

Interpretation of Part C

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CHAPTER 2 — PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING OF METALS

SECTION 2.1 — FERROUS METALS

Part A

• (a) Roasting or sintering metal ore, including sulphide ore, or any mixture of iron ore with or without other materials.

• (b) Producing, melting or refining iron or steel or any ferrous alloy, including continuous casting, except where the only furnaces used are–

• (i) electric arc furnaces with a designed holding capacity of less than 7 tonnes, or

• (ii) cupola, crucible, reverbatory, rotary, induction or resistance furnaces.

• (c) Processing ferrous metals and their alloys by using hot-rolling mills with a production capacity of more than 20 tonnes of crude steel per hour.

• (d) Loading, unloading or otherwise handling or storing more than 500,000 tonnes in total in any period of 12 months of iron ore, except in the course of mining operations, or burnt pyrites.

• (e) Producing pig iron or steel, including continuous casting, in a plant with a production capacity of more than 2.5 tonnes per hour unless falling within paragraph (b) of this Part of this Section.

• (f) Operating hammers in a forge, the energy of which is more than 50 kilojoules per hammer, where the calorific power used is more than 20 megawatts.

• (g) Applying protective fused metal coatings with an input of more than 2 tonnes of crude steel per hour.

• (h) Casting ferrous metal at a foundry with a production capacity of more than 20 tonnes per day.

Part B

Casting iron, steel or any ferrous alloy from deliveries of 50 tonnes or more of molten metal, unless falling within Part A of this Section.

Part C

• (a) Producing pig iron or steel, including continuous casting, in a plant with a production capacity of 2.5 tonnes or less per hour, unless falling within paragraph (b) of Part A of this Section.

• (b) Producing, melting or refining iron or steel or any ferrous alloy (other than producing pig iron or steel, including continuous casting) using–

• (i) one or more electric arc furnaces, none of which has a designed holding capacity of 7 tonnes or more; or

• (ii) a cupola, crucible, reverberatory, rotary, induction or resistance furnace,

unless falling within paragraph (e) or (h) of Part A of this Section.

• (c) Desulphurising iron, steel or any ferrous alloy.

• (d) Heating iron, steel or any ferrous alloy (whether in a furnace or other appliance) to remove grease, oil or any other non-metallic contaminant (including such operations as the removal by heat of plastic or rubber covering from scrap cable) unless–

• (i) it is carried out in one or more furnaces or other appliances the primary combustion chambers of which have in aggregate a rated thermal input of less than 0.2 megawatts;

• (ii) it does not involve the removal by heat of plastic or rubber covering from scrap cable or of any asbestos contaminant; and

• (iii) it is not related to any other activity falling within this Part of this Section.

Interpretation of Section 2.1

In this Section, “ferrous alloy” means an alloy of which iron is the largest constituent, or equal to the largest constituent, by weight, whether or not that alloy also has a non-ferrous metal content greater than any percentage specified in Section 2.2.

SECTION 2.2 — NON-FERROUS METALS

Part A

• (a) Producing non-ferrous metals from ore, concentrates or secondary raw materials by metallurgical, chemical or electrolytic activities.

• (b) Melting, including making alloys, of non-ferrous metals, including recovered products (refining, foundry casting etc.) where the plant has a melting capacity of more than 4 tonnes per day for lead or cadmium or 20 tonnes per day for all other metals.

• (c) Refining any non-ferrous metal or alloy, other than the electrolytic refining of copper, except where the activity is related to an activity described in paragraph (a) or (c) of Part B, or paragraph (c) of Part C of this Section.

• (d) Producing, melting or recovering by chemicals means or by the use of heat, lead or any lead alloy, if–

• (i) the activity may result in the release into the air of lead; and

• (ii) in the case of lead alloy, the percentage by weight of lead in the alloy in molten form is more than 23 per cent if the alloy contains copper and 2 per cent in other cases.

• (e) Recovering any of the following elements if the activity may result in their release into the air: gallium; indium; palladium; tellurium; thallium.

• (f) Producing, melting or recovering (whether by chemical means or by electrolysis or by the use of heat) cadmium or mercury or any alloy containing more than 0.05 per cent by weight of either of those metals or, in aggregate, of both.

• (g) Mining zinc or tin bearing ores where the activity may result in the release into water of cadmium or any compound of cadmium in a concentration which is greater than the background concentration.

• (h) Manufacturing or repairing involving the use of beryllium or selenium or an alloy containing one or both of those metals if the activity may result in the release into the air of any of the substances listed in paragraph 12 of Part 2 to this Schedule; but an activity does not fall within this paragraph by reason of it involving an alloy that contains beryllium if that alloy in molten form contains less than 0.1 per cent by weight of beryllium and the activity falls within paragraph (a) or (c) of Part B of this Section.

• (i) Pelletising, calcining, roasting or sintering any non-ferrous metal ore or any mixture of such ore and other materials.

Interpretation of Part A

In paragraph (g), “background concentration” means any concentration of cadmium or any compound of cadmium which would be present in the release irrespective of any effect the activity may have had on the composition of the release and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, includes such concentration of those substances as is present in–

• (i) water supplied to the site where the activity is carried out;

• (ii) water abstracted for use in the activity; and

• (iii) precipitation onto the site on which the activity is carried out.

Part B

• (a) Melting, including making alloys, of non-ferrous metals (other than tin or any alloy which in molten form contains 50 per cent or more by weight of tin), including recovered products (refining, foundry casting, etc.) in plant with a melting capacity of 4 tonnes or less per day for lead or cadmium or 20 tonnes or less per day for all other metals and where the designed holding capacity of molten meal is 0.5 tonnes or more (together with any additional refining).

• (b) Melting zinc or a zinc alloy in conjunction with a galvanising activity at a rate of 20 tonnes or less per day unless described in paragraph (g) of Part A of Section 2.1.

• (c) Melting zinc, aluminium or magnesium or an alloy of one or more of these metals in conjunction with a die-casting activity at a rate of 20 tonnes or less per day.

Part C