Waste Treatment Plant: Licensing

HL Deb 23 July 1996 vol 574 cc107-8WA

Viscount Ullswater

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What are their views on the need for operators of trade effluent treatment plant to obtain a waste management licence.

Earl Ferrers

On 25th July 1995, the Government announced the extension to 31st March 1996 of a transitional exemption from waste management licensing for certain operations which involve the biological or physico-chemical treatment of waste. In so doing, we confirmed that we would be prepared to consider whether a case could be made for some waste treatment plant to be exempted from licensing under Article 11 of the amended EC Framework Directive on waste, and we invited representations from anyone with an interest in such plant.

Following that announcement, the Government decided that it would be appropriate also to review the application of Article 2 of the Framework Directive. The transitional arrangements were therefore extended to 30th September 1996 in order to enable this to be done. We are now in a position to announce our conclusions.

The Government's conclusions are that the requirements of the Framework Directive on waste do not apply:

1. (a) to discharges of effluent which are covered by national legislation transposing the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive; or
2. (b) to discharges of effluent which are covered by national rules in force at the time of the Framework Directive's adoption in March 1991, which lay down regimes for discharges of effluent which provide an effective means of pursuing the aims of the directive, and which provide for rules and authorisations of the kind provided for in the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. In the Government's view, national rules of this kind are discharge consents under Chapter II of Part III of the Water Resources Act 1991 or Part II of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 in Scotland (pollution of controlled waters); and consents under Chapter III of Part IV of the Water Industry Act 1991 (consent for discharge of trade effluent into a public sewer).

It follows that, where effluent is being subjected to biological or physico-chemical treatment in circumstances where these criteria are met, the operation of the treatment plant does not require a waste management licence under Part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.