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How to comply with your Environmental Permit

Additional guidance for mining waste operations (EPR 6.14) and guidance on financial guarantees for mining waste facilities.

Starting date: 25 June 2009
Closing date: 1 October 2009

Consultation summary

We have produced two new guidance documents to help operators apply for and comply with mining waste environmental permits:

How to comply with your environmental permit. Additional guidance for mining waste operations

This Technical Guidance Note is for use by the mining waste sector in addition to our general Environmental Permitting Regulations guidance. It provides operational standards and measures to help operators prevent pollution and comply with their permit. It also gives specific guidance on how to prepare a Waste Management Plan.

Guidance on financial guarantees for mining waste facilities

Operators of mining waste operations that include a Category A mining waste facility or a mining waste facility for hazardous waste are required to have a financial guarantee in place before use of that facility. The financial gurantee is required to ensure that sufficient funds are available to meet the obligations of the permit (which include closure and aftercare provisions).

Consultation documents

Your views

We welcome your views on the questions listed below. Questions 1 to 6 relate to the Technical Guidance Note. Question 7 relates to the financial guarantee guidance only.

Question 1

Part (a)

Are the standards and measures in the Technical Guidance Note appropriate for the range of mining waste operations in England and Wales. If not, please specify which one(s) you consider not to be appropriate and why.

Part (b)

Is the guidance provided for category A mining waste facilities sufficient? If not, please explain why.

Question 2

Is the guidance clear about what should be included in the Waste Management Plan? If not, please explain why.

Question 3

In section 3.3.2 we have suggested that attenuation ponds that form part of the waste management facility are designed with a capacity for a 1 in 100 year return period storm of any duration.

Existing facilities may not have been built to this standard. Please inform us whether or not your facilities meet this standard. If not, what steps will you have to take to achieve it?

Question 4

Part (a)

We have interpreted the "survey of the condition of the land to be affected by the mining waste facility" (in section 2.2.9) to mean identification of any aspects of the land which could potentially affect stability and lead to pollution of the environment or harm to human health. Do you agree with this interpretation?

Part (b)

Is it clear what information you would need to submit?

Question 5

Do the requirements of the Technical Guidance Note mean that you will be able to rely on existing information provided to other regulators in order to produce a Waste Management Plan?

Question 6

A list of inert extractive wastes which the Confederation of British Industry Minerals Group has helped develop can be found in Appendix 4 of the Technical Guidance Note.

(a)  Do you agree with the approach suggested?
(b)  What, if any, other inert extractive wastes do you consider should be included, and why?

Question 7

Part (a)

Do you consider the 60 year period over which we require a detailed estimate of aftercare costs in the financial guarantee guidance to be reasonable?

Part (b)

If not do you consider different timeframes are required depending on the type of facility?

Question 8

Any other comments?

How to respond

We have attached a response form, to make it easier for you to structure your comments. 

Responses to this consultation should be made no later than 1 October 2009. 
 
Please email the completed response form to:

Alternatively, you can post your response to:

Fran Sykes
Environment Agency
Kingsmeadow House
Kingsmeadow Road
Reading
RG1 8DQ

If you have any questions regarding the Mining Waste Directive, please email Stephen Clark or telephone 08708 506 506.

Consultation feedback and next steps

We will use your response to this consultation to review and improve the quality of the two documents. All responses will be published after the consultation has closed. Please indicate on your response if you want us to treat it as confidential.

Responses made on behalf of organisations will be published with the organisation’s name, but names of individuals who respond will not be published.

We will compile a report on the consultation feedback, which will be available on our website later this year. We plan to finalise and publish both documents as soon as any changes needed as a result of this consultation have been made.