Expanded EU pollution inventory sails through

1986, 21/11/05

A move to greatly expand the EU's industrial pollution inventory is set for final approval this month, capping a first reading agreement reached between the council of ministers and European parliament in the summer.  Reporting under the new regime will start reaching the public from 2009.

The European pollutant release and transfer register (PRTR) regulation will bring EU practice into line with a UN protocol agreed in 2003 (ED 31/01/03 http://www.environmentdaily.com/13752).  It will build on the bloc's existing polluting emissions register (Eper) launched last year (ED 24/02/04 http://www.environmentdaily.com/16141). A decision accompanying the regulation will ratify the UN protocol at EU level.

As proposed by the commission, the European PRTR will require reporting by more industries and more facilities of more pollutants more frequently than Eper.  The directive's objective has been amended to aim explicitly for greater public participation in environmental decision-making and prevention and reduction of pollution.

Under the PRTR, 65 industry sectors will have to report, compared with 56 under Eper - a notable addition being a large number of municipal wastewater treatment works.  Firms will have to report on releases of 91 substances compared with 86 under the UN protocol and just 50 under Eper.

Off-site transfers of waste and levels of pollutants in wastewater going to treatment plants will have to be reported as well as direct emissions to air and water.  The European commission will also collate available national reporting on diffuse pollution.  Reporting will be annual rather than tri-annual as under Eper.

The regulation's final shape was agreed this spring and summer during negotiations between the council of ministers and the European parliament.  This resulted in a parliamentary first reading position in July that both sides supported (ED 07/07/05 http://www.environmentdaily.com/19162).

No radical changes have been introduced to the regulation, which has nevertheless been strengthened in several ways.  One is that industry will have to specify any releases resulting from accidents.  A second is that the threshold for reporting releases of dioxins and furans has been reduced by a factor of ten.

Follow-up: Draft PRTR regulation http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/05/st03/st03648.en05.pdf and decision http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/05/st10/st10799.en05.pdf.

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