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E-PRTR – Where is the information going?

 

At the end of March each year IPPC and Waste licensed facilities fill out the E-PRTR (European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) section of their AER (Annual Environmental Report).

Approximately 24,000 EU facilities are covered by the PRTR regulation (EC) No. 166/2006. Its main aim is to make emissions information available to all stakeholders, including the public and decision making bodies.

A facility must report data where the following criteria are satisfied;

  • the facility falls under at least one of the 65 E-PRTR economic activities listed in Annex I of the E-PRTR Regulation and exceeds at least one of the E-PRTR capacity thresholds
  • the facility transfers waste off-site which exceed specific thresholds set out in Article 5 of the Regulation
  • The facility releases pollutants which exceed specific thresholds specified for each media - air, water and land - in Annex II of the E-PRTR Regulation

If the thresholds are exceeded then the following data is required;

  • Releases to air, water and land of any of the 91 E-PRTR pollutants
  • Off-site transfers of any of the 91 E-PRTR pollutants in waste water destined for waste-water treatment outside the facility.
  • Off-site transfers of waste (reported as tonnes per year) for recovery or disposal. For transboundary movements of hazardous waste outside the reporting country, details of the waste receivers have to be provided.

The data is then submitted to the European Commission and the European Environment Agency by the relevant competent authorities of the EU member states. The competent authority for Ireland is the EPA.

The Commission is planning to carry out a detailed review of data submitted in 2011.

Detailed regional and facility level information is available at the following website http://prtr.ec.europa.eu .