Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Pollution Prevention and Control (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 and come into operation on 20th May 2007.

Amendment to the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

2.—(1) The Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003(2) shall be amended as follows.

(2) For Part A of Section 1.1 (Combustion Activities) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 substitute—

“Part A

(a) Burning any fuel in an appliance with a rated thermal input of 50 megawatts or more.

(b) Burning any of the following fuels in an appliance with a rated thermal input of 3 megawatts or more, but less than 50 megawatts, unless the activity is carried out as part of a Part B or Part C activity–

(i) waste oil;

(ii) recovered oil;

(iii) subject to the conditions of paragraph (c), any fuel manufactured from, or comprising, any other waste.

(c) The conditions referred to in paragraph (b)(iii) are that the fuel—

(i) results from a gas produced by biological degradation of waste on landfill that is not subject to a permit under these Regulations, but is regulated by a waste management licence granted under Article 8 of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997(3);

(ii) is burnt in an appliance that is used on landfill that is not regulated under these Regulations but in respect of which a waste management licence is in force; and

(iii) is utilised as part of a combustion activity that is not separately permitted under a landfill permit as defined in regulation 6(2) of the Landfill Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003(4).

(d) In paragraph(c), where a landfill becomes subject to a permit granted under regulation10 in respect of a Part A activity referred to in Section 5.2 of Chapter 5 of this part after the 20th May 2007 but before 31 October 2007, the combustion activity shall not be treated as a Section 1.1 activity.

Interpretation of Part A.

(e) For the purpose of paragraph 2(2)(a), where two or more appliances with an aggregate rated thermal input of 50 megawatts or more are operated on the same site by the same operator those appliances shall be treated as a single appliance with a rated thermal input of 50 megawatts or more.”

(3) In Part C of Section 1.2 (Gasification, Liquefaction and Refining Activities)—

(a) after paragraph (b) add—

“(c) Motor vehicle refuelling activities at existing service stations, if the petrol refuelling throughput at the service station in any period of twelve months commencing on or after 1st January 2007 is, or is likely to be, 3500m³ or more.

(d) Motor vehicle refuelling activities at new service stations, if the petrol refuelling throughput at the service station in any period of twelve months is likely to be 500m³ or more.”;

(b) under the heading “Interpretation of Part C”, in paragraph 1 after the words “In this Part” insert—

““existing service station” means a service station—

before 31st December 2009;;”;

(c) under the heading “Interpretation of Part C”, in paragraph 1 before the definition of “petrol” insert—

““new service station” means a service station which is put into operation on or after 31st December 2009 other than an existing service station;”;

(4) In paragraph (h) of Part A of Section 5.1 (Incineration and Co-incineration of Waste), after “burning” insert “landfill gas or”.

(5) Schedule 3 (Prescribed Date and Transitional Arrangements) is amended as follows—

(a) in Part 3 (SED Installations)—

(i) in paragraph 14(1), after “paragraphs” insert “14A,”;

(ii) after paragraph 14 insert—

“14A.  — (1) An operator of an existing SED installation—

(a) involving only dry cleaning as defined in paragraph (2) of Part C of Section 7 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 (SED Activities), by means of coin-operated dry cleaners; and

(b) in respect of which no application for a permit to operate the existing SED installation is duly made by 31st October 2006,

shall be deemed to have made a notification to the regulator of his undertaking to cease to operate that existing SED installation by 31st October 2007.

(2) Where sub-paragraph (1) applies, the operator of an existing SED installation shall be relieved of the requirement to apply for a permit under regulation 10 (Permits: general provisions), and the operation of that existing SED installation until 31st October 2007 without a permit shall not constitute an offence under paragraph (1)(a) of regulation 33 (Offences).

(3) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1) “coin-operated dry cleaners” include dry cleaning machines functioning by means of coins, tokens, cards or other similar triggering mechanisms. ”;

(b) After Part 4, insert a new Part 5 as set out in the Schedule.