Assessing the implementation of best available techniques at the local scale in the absence of industrial sectoral reference : an issue for compliance demonstration
Résumé
The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) aims to achieve a high level of protection of the environment as a whole and of human health. In this purpose, the IED requires the implementation of techniques with performance equivalent to the Best Available Techniques (BATs) described in the reference documents (BREF). However, when drawing up or revising a BREF at European level, it is not possible to cover each industrial sector or subsector for all or some of the Key Environmental Issues. There are then different types of situations for which the BREF is incomplete or non-existent. Industrial plants involved in these activities without reference are not exempt from implementing BATs. However, the lack of reference technologies "officially" considered as BATs may lead the site operator to skip the installations concerned in his reflection on the establishment of BATs and / or the competent authority not to check BAT compliance. The results of surveys and the literature review showed that the degree of verification and the methods for evaluating the implementation of BATs at the local scale are heterogeneous. Moreover, the large discrepancies in the processing of regulatory files can potentially give rise to distortions of competition. In this context, a methodology was developed in order to enable the operator of an IED or non-IED installation concerned by the problem to demonstrate to the competent authorities, in the absence of an official reference, that a technique is BAT for the considered installation. Its elaboration was based on case studies, which allowed to propose practical tools capable of answering each of the necessary steps to the assessment of techniques with regard to BATs, and to test them directly in the field. Further applications in various sectors need to be made to confirm the genericity and the robustness of this methodology.