Environmental Permitting and Site Condition Assessment

Working since the beginning

RSK’s team have been undertaking environmental permitting and site condition assessments in relation to PPC since it was first introduced in 2000, thereby building on our already strong track record of supporting clients through a wide range of consultancy offerings and services. Since then, we have developed a pragmatic and proactive approach for meeting permitting requirements combined with an excellent reputation and working relationships with environmental regulators. More recently, the IED has brought in additional requirements leading to variations to existing permits. We can also help with complying with the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations (COMAH) and provide compliance auditing.

Understanding the potential pitfalls

We know that each client’s priority is to gain regulatory consent for its permit, or to achieve its surrender, as cost-effectively as possible. We also know that there are several potential hurdles a client must consider, such as budget restrictions, lack of regulatory engagement and unforeseen circumstances, such as below-ground contamination. All of these carry the risk of causing unforeseen delays and therefore must be considered and mitigated, whenever possible, as early as is feasible.

Gaining permits and variations

Operators know their facilities better than anyone else, so we tailor our approach to supplement your in-house capability and offer the specialist services that are required to support your application for a permit or variation. We offer as comprehensive a service as is needed, from preparation of a full permit application to provision of specific services, including air quality and noise impact assessments; site condition or baseline assessments; demonstrating the application of BAT; emission impact assessments; and the associated monitoring and testing services.

We are renowned for our pragmatic and proactive approach to meeting permitting requirements, which is combined with an excellent reputation and working relationships with environmental regulators.

RSK provides bespoke waste-management services including waste compliance, hazardous waste classification, closed landfill management and technically competent management of waste facilities.

We also support organisations after they gain their permits as they strive to manage their carbon commitments. For instance, we offer value-adding services relating to carbon footprinting, emissions trading and offsetting. We have delivered projects that meet the Kyoto Protocol’s flexibility mechanisms, joint implementation and the Clean Development Mechanism.

We are certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and BS OHSAS 18001, accredited by CHAS and have members who hold registrations with Constructionline, Link-up and UVDB. We pride ourselves on our effective health and safety management on operational sites.

What happens when a permitted site closes?

Operators have to apply to the regulator to surrender the permit(s) in place when a site closes. The final condition of the site has to been shown to be in “a satisfactory state”, as defined in regulatory guidance. This involves documenting how plants and/or processes that involve potentially polluting substances have been decommissioned safely and without environmental impact. It also requires a detailed assessment to show whether releases to soil and groundwater could have occurred from activities operated under the permit and, typically, an intrusive site investigation to detail the site’s final condition at surrender. Remediation work may be required to address any releases to soil and groundwater that have occurred to achieve a satisfactory state. It can be a costly and time-consuming process to satisfy the regulator that all requirements have been met.

RSK has extensive experience of undertaking site condition assessments to support environmental permit surrender, providing support to decommissioning works such as environmental auditing and collating documentation, as well as preparing full permit-surrender applications.