Description
The EU Directive 2010/75 on industrial emissions (IE Directive) is an important element of European environmental protection and was transposed into national law in 2013.
It pursues the goal of avoiding, reducing and as far as possible eliminating environmental pollution for air, water and soil. This is achieved by closely monitoring (industrial) facilities that fall under this directive (so-called IE facilities) and publishing the results of these on-site inspections. In addition, a permit is required for the operation of each IE plant.
Covered by the IE Directive are:
- Industrial plants marked with "E" in Annex 1 of the 4th BImSchV, such as refineries, chemical plants and many power plants.
- Stand-alone wastewater treatment plants that are licensed in Germany in accordance with Section 60 (3) Sentence 1 No. 2 WHG,
- Landfills that fall under No. 5.4 of Annex 1 of the IE-RL.
For the cross-media, integrated protection approach of the IE-RL, the IE plants are brought closer to a uniform technology standard, the so-called best available techniques (BAT). In addition, the IE Directive contains detailed requirements for plant monitoring, reporting and associated publication obligations. These measures are also intended to create a level playing field in the EU.
To ensure the scheduled and comprehensible monitoring of IE plants, monitoring plans are drawn up for each administrative district. These apply to all IE plants and are published on the websites of the seven governments. On the basis of these monitoring plans, a monitoring program is drawn up for the IE plants by the locally responsible monitoring authority, which is published on the website of the respective monitoring authority. Please also refer to the links at the bottom of this page.
Competent monitoring authority(ies) for
- electrical plants are the governments, the Bavarian State Office for the Environment, the district administrative authorities or the mining offices,
- independent wastewater treatment plants are the district administrative authorities,
- landfills in the deposition and decommissioning phase is the Bavarian State Office for the Environment.
The locally responsible monitoring authorities determine the monitoring frequency for on-site inspections by means of a risk assessment for each individual IE plant in their area of responsibility. Among other things, the size, complexity and operating time of the plant, but also the substances used in it or any noise pollution are taken into account. The regular inspections take place every one to three years; more frequent inspections are also possible if there is a specific reason for doing so.
After each on-site inspection of an IE plant, the responsible monitoring authority prepares a monitoring report with the relevant findings on compliance with the permit requirements. The monitoring report is published on the website of the relevant competent monitoring authority within four months of the on-site visit. Likewise, all notices issued after January 2013 for IE plants can also be found on the website of the licensing authority.
If you select a location under "Localization" the contact details of the responsible authority and, if applicable, locally valid information will be displayed.