Industrial activities play an important role in ensuring Europe’s, as well as Malta’s, economic well-being, contributing to sustainable growth and providing high quality jobs
However, they also generate several negative environmental impacts, accounting for a considerable share of total emissions of key atmospheric pollutants and contributing to the production of waste and excessive use of energy.
Industrial installations have therefore been subject to various EU-wide legislation, whose local implementation necessitates the provision of environmental permits, a type of permit regulating the operational aspects of those industrial facilities which have an impact on the environment.
In this context, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) has drawn up a new draft environmental permitting system to improve the regulatory framework applicable to industrial activities of environmental significance. Contacted by the Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee (Meusac), Rachel Decelis, Environmental Permitting and Industry Unit officer within Mepa, said that this proposed regime is necessary to bring together the vast quantities of environmental laws in an integrated, site-specific permit, which would simplify and facilitate industry’s compliance with such laws.
This environmental permitting system offers several benefits, including the advantage of having one permit for most laws under Mepa’s competences, legal certainty and the opportunity to identify priority environmental issues to enable appropriate risk management. In addition, the environmental permit would limit the extent of liability of operators in case of environmental damage caused by the permitted activity. But most importantly such a system would benefit society as a whole since certain industrial activities may pose serious environmental and health risks if not adequately regulated.
This new environmental permitting system takes a risk-based approach, whereby only those facilities which present a certain level of environmental risk would be regulated. These would include fuel and container terminals, shipyards, batching plants, quarries, waste management activities, industrial activities with a discharge to sea, large hotels, hospitals and certain manufacturing plants.
Businesses that carry out such activities would be required to apply for an environmental permit within a set timeframe. Ms Decelis added that these timeframes are being allocated on the basis of the level of risk of a particular activity ranging from two to five years. Such permits would include site-specific conditions regulating the site’s impact on the environment, for instance, conditions on emissions to air, discharges of effluent, noise and vibration, waste management and appropriate storage of materials. The permits, which would be valid for four years and after which businesses would have to apply for renewal, would also require the operator to submit annual environmental reports with information on waste transfers, monitoring records and fuel use.
This proposed environmental permitting system which is open for public consultation, was the subject of two well-attended consultation sessions organised by Meusac in collaboration with Mepa last month. The scope of these sessions was to gather views and comments from relevant stakeholders before the proposed environmental permitting system comes into force.
The authority is encouraging the business sector, NGOs and the public to submit their feedback and comments by sending an email on [email protected]. Further information may be obtained by visiting Mepa’s website on www.mepa.org.mt/environmentalpermitting or by contacting the Environmental Permitting and Industry Unit on 2290-7230. This public participation exercise is open till 7 March.
Once this consultation period is concluded, Mepa will then draft a legal notice taking into account the comments and suggestions received. This legal notice will then be made available for a four-week consultation period before it is presented for publication. Ms Decelis stated that this legislation is intended to come into force later on this year, adding that industrial facilities may still apply for an environmental permit in the interim period.
Francine Caruana is Executive
(EU Policy and Legislation), Meusac