The form of an application for a comprehensive environmental permit has been approved along with the form of a comprehensive environmental permit

Pepeliaev Group advises that, starting from 1 January 2019, the form of the application is introduced for obtaining a comprehensive environmental permit along with the form of the comprehensive environmental permit[1].

On 1 January 2019, new provisions of the Law on Environment Protection[2] will come into force. This amended law changes fundamentally the procedure of regulating negative environmental impact (the “NEI”) and the list of permission documents. It also stipulates, among other things, the obligation to obtain a comprehensive environmental permit (the “CEP”) for persons conducting activities at facilities of category I[3], and the right to obtain such a permit for persons conducting activities at facilities of category II[4], provided that there are information and technical reference guides on the best available techniques in the relevant industry[5].

• According to the form of the application for obtaining the CEP, apart from the information about the person filing such application (including the name, address, principal state registration number, taxpayer’s identification number and number under the All-Russian Classifier of Types of Economic Activity), the following should be specified:

• the information about products manufactured; raw materials, water, electric and heat energy used; emergencies and incidents (for the previous 7 years with a description of consequences, including data on the polluted land and offshore areas, level of soil pollution, volumes of dumped or emitted pollutants), implementation of the environmental efficiency programmes;
• the calculation of technological standards[6] for emissions, discharges and physical impact;
• the calculation of standards in admissible emissions and discharges of highly toxic substances, as well as substances with oncogenic and mutagenic properties (i.e. belonging to dangerous substances classes I and II), if the emissions or discharges of pollutants contain such substances;
• the calculation of standards in admissible discharges of pollutants for a facility of the centralised water removal system of a village or an urban area;
• the justification of the standards in generating production and consumption waste, as well as the limits on dumping the waste;
• the draft of the industrial environmental control programme;
• the information about whether there is a favourable opinion of an environmental expert commission, if a review by such an expert commission is required under legislation on environmental expert review.

Under the current wording of the Law on Environmental Expert Review[7] materials for a CEP justification are items subject to the state environmental expert review (article 11(7.6)). At present, the draft law on amendments to the Law on Environmental Expert Review is under a public debate. The draft law withdraws these materials out of the scope of the state environmental expert review[8].

• The form of a CEP includes the following sections:

• the technological standards;
• the standards in admissible emissions of highly toxic substances, as well as substances with oncogenic and mutagenic properties (i.e. belonging to dangerous substances classes I and II), if the emissions of pollutants contain such substances;
• the standards in admissible discharge of highly toxic substances, as well as substances with oncogenic and mutagenic properties (i.e. belonging to dangerous substances classes I and II), if the discharges of pollutants contain such substances;
• the standards in admissible discharge of substances into a body of water for a facility of the centralised water removal system of a village or an urban area;
• the standards for generating production and consumption waste and the limits for dumping the waste;
• the requirements to handling production and consumption waste;
• the agreed industrial environmental control programme (including the programme for increasing environmental efficiency if it is impossible to observe the technological standards, standards in admissible emissions/discharges of highly toxic substances and substances with oncogenic and mutagenic properties (i.e. belonging to dangerous substances classes I and II);
• the temporarily permitted emissions of pollutants, including: substances for which technological indicators are established; highly toxic substances and substances with oncogenic and mutagenic properties (i.e. belonging to dangerous substances classes I and II), if the emissions of pollutants contain such substances;
• the temporarily permitted discharges of pollutants, including: substances for which technological indicators are established; highly toxic substances and substances with oncogenic and mutagenic properties (i.e. belonging to dangerous substances classes I and II), if the emissions of pollutants contain such substances;

What to think about and what to do

Despite that article 11 of Federal Law No. 219-FZ dated 21 July 2014 prolongs the validity period of permission documents obtained before 1 January 2019 until the day the CEP is received and sets the deadline of 1 January 2025 for obtaining the CEP for most enterprises of category I (except for those included in the special list[9]) (in other words, on 1 January 2025 an enterprise has to have a valid CEP), companies need to start preparing for obtaining the CEP in advance so as not to find themselves in a situation when the established timeframe for obtaining the CEP is violated due to a vast number of applications for the permit.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that on 1 January 2019 the rules of administrative liability for conducting operations without a CEP will come into force[10].

Help from your adviser

The lawyers of Pepeliaev Group are ready to guide you through the new rules of regulating and setting standards with respect to NEI and to advise you on the issues connected with the changes in environmental legislation.