It has been a busy period over the last month for new guidance. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have published their much promised announcement on the "Way Forward" for assessing contaminated land. The five page document will hopefully provide much needed improvements to the current contaminated land guidance in order to fully equip professionals in the field with the necessary tools and support to assess whether land contamination poses a "significant possibility of significant harm (SPOSH)."
DEFRA have also published new construction guidance. Under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2007/3538, the operation of mobile plant used for crushing and grinding construction waste, such as bricks, tiles or concrete, requires an environmental permit. However, where it is considered to be too trivial it may now qualify for an exemption. The most likely to benefit from this are the new generation of mini or micro-crushers and small capacity bucket crushers, providing they are fitted with pollution preventing dust suppression equipment. The guidance will also simplify permit procedures for short term users hiring out mobile crushing plant via a new temporary transfer system.
Further information on the above is available at www.defra.gov.uk.
In addition the Environment Agency has published a series of guidance documents to help those moving hazardous waste from the point of its production to the place of its recovery and/or disposal. The documents will cover the use of consignment notes in a number of scenarios, including where there are multiple waste collections, and where there are cross-border movements and aim to to assist producers, holders, consignors, carriers and consignees to comply with hazardous waste provisions. They also provide a step by step guide to the documentation that must accompany hazardous waste in each scenario.
Further information on these documents is available at www.environment-agency.gov.uk.
