Conforming to Integrated Pollution Prevention And Control

UK - Are the conditions being set for Integrated Pollution Prevention And Control (IPPC) permits way off kilter? That's certainly the view of many pig producers who are bewildered by the inconsistent advice they are receiving from the Environment Agency (EA).
calendar icon 26 June 2008
clock icon 4 minute read

However, the majority of farmers are reporting that initial contact with local EA officers has been less of a trial than they had feared. There are inevitably issues of inconsistency and examples of what could be considered impractical or just down right ridiculous advice.

For instance one pig farmer, who has had lorries delivering feed in the night for over 30 years and has never had a burst bin, was told by EA he should install steel posts to protect the bins, which in his view were far more hazardous and likely to burst the delivery tanks. The alternative was to put kerbstones down, which the farmer has installed but now finds his staff constantly tripping over them. A sensible risk assessment would surely find both measures not viable.

Some times a more pragmatic approach to issues like small amounts of dust under a feed bin or the need for guttering on all buildings would go a long way and make sure attention was focused on the more significant issues.


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"Some of the key issues to consider are understanding permit conditions, the pollution inventory, improvement plans and best available techniques (BAT) to comply with the conditions. Also a little bit of lateral thinking can help make conforming to IPPC less arduous."
BPEX environment expert Nigel Penlington

BPEX environment expert Nigel Penlington thinks there are ways to make getting to grips with IPPC easier.

According to Nigel: "Some of the key issues to consider are understanding permit conditions, the pollution inventory, improvement plans and best available techniques (BAT) to comply with the conditions. Also a little bit of lateral thinking can help make conforming to IPPC less arduous."

"Within six months of applying for a permit, you should receive a visit from environment officers for a site inspection, to discuss aspects of the permit and improvement conditions. The environment officer should also provide guidance on how to comply with the permit conditions."

From visits already carried out the most common issues to arise for producers are site identification boards, bunding, records and reporting. Nigel has some suggestions.

Nigel's hints and tips about conforming to IPPC:

  • portable tanks do not need to be bunded
  • keeping records can make life easier - many of those needed already exist, don't duplicate, but make sure they are available.
  • the Pollution Inventory looks daunting - BPEX has templates to help you fill in the paperwork)
  • waste transfer notes - the easiest thing is to keep on file and keep a running tally
  • oils, plastics, scrap metal and batteries are all regarded as waste, HOWEVER, redundant farm machinery is not
  • a tidy yard and an obvious diligent bio-security system will make a good first impression when the environment officer comes to visit
  • if you're pro-active it may save you time having to do unnecessary work
  • water-metering is an easy and inexpensive way to measure usage
  • work instructions are helpful for staff to understand IPPC conditions
  • 50% of slurry is often wasted water on farm
  • mark up drains - red for slurry, yellow for less harmful and blue for clean

And the cost of IPPC...

It is estimated that application and first year's fears are likely to be over 36,000. One producer said it took him 200 hours to complete the paperwork (estimate 310,000). Obviously implementation costs will vary according to the size of the unit and the number of slurry stores and ammonia reductions but perhaps a reasonable average cost is going to be somewhere between 310,000 to 320,000 per year.

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