|
Closed Landfills
The Environment Agency is reviewing its regulatory approach to landfill sites that no longer accept wastes, but which continue to be regulated under the terms of a Waste Management Licence. (“WML closed landfills”).
An initial groundwater risk screening exercise by the Agency has identified that 1224 of the 1500 WML closed landfills presented a potential risk to the underlying groundwater and will require further investigation.
Background
The Groundwater Regulations 1998 (and previously regulation 15 of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994) required that a risk assessment be undertaken for all landfill sites to ensure that there would be no unacceptable discharges to groundwater.
However, in most cases the Agency did not require Groundwater Risk Assessments to be carried out until 2000, and even then the Agency Area Offices’ interpretation and enforcement of the requirement was inconsistent.
Many sites ceased operating before 1994 and so would not have been required to undertake a Groundwater Risk Assessment. In addition, some of these sites would have been previously licensed under the Control of Pollution Act 1974 and regulated to the lower standards required by that regime before transferring into the WML regime.
When the Agency implemented the Groundwater Regulations, no standard risk assessment model existed. Also, a number of the Minimum Reporting Values (MRVs) were relatively high in comparison with today’s required MRVs: the Agency has since introduced more stringent requirements, such as the requirement to use the “Landsim” model for risk assessments, and laboratories are now able to detect much lower levels of pollution in groundwater samples.
As a result, whilst groundwater risk assessments carried out in 1998 -2000 may have demonstrated compliance with the Groundwater Regulations at that time, a risk assessment carried out today might fail.
Whilst operators must ensure that activities do not have adverse impacts on groundwater, many sites which were operated in accordance with their WMLs became non operational before implementation of the requirement to carry out Groundwater Risk Assessments. Therefore the impact of introducing legislation retrospectively needs to be fully understood.
Closed sites may no longer generate income, and few operators will have made provision for additional remediation works which may be required as result of the Agency’s review. The Agency’s review could also affect the viability of future acquisitions of companies whose portfolios include closed landfills: this could result in sites being “orphaned”.
It has been suggested that it may be appropriate to use Landfill Tax receipts to remediate sites operated in compliance with WML but now deemed to be of significant risk to groundwater.
The Agency has so far treated information gathered for the review as confidential but is currently preparing to make public disclosure. ESA will work closely with the Agency regarding the timing and content of any such disclosure.
Environment Agency Background paper for ESA: the regulation of WML closed landfills
There are around 1500 landfills that have ceased taking wastes and continue to be regulated by the Environment Agency under the terms of a Waste Management Licence. (“WML closed landfills”). These licences include a range of obligations aimed at protecting the environment and human health. We continue to regularly inspect these sites to ensure that these obligations are being met.
We are currently reviewing our regulatory approach to WML closed landfills. The aim of the review is to assess whether the Agency needs to amend its approach and, if needed, to set out our future direction for the regulation of these sites.
The main driver for this review is the need to comply with legislation. This includes:
-The Groundwater Regulations 1998 (previously regulation 15 of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994);
-The overarching requirements to protect health and the wider environment as set out in Article 4 of the Waste Framework Directive;
-The requirement under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for a site to hold a waste management licence, the operator to comply with the conditions, until surrender is accepted by the Agency;
-The need for the Agency to periodically inspect compliance with waste management licences
The Agency has recently undertaken an assessment of the potential impact that these sites may have on groundwater. This indicates that a significant number do present, to varying degrees, at least some form of potential risk to the underlying groundwater.
We are sensitive to the impact that the outcome of the review may have upon some licence holders. We are therefore in discussion with groups representing the interests of licence holders. This includes The Landfill Closure Sub Group (which includes Members of ESA’s Landfill Committee) and ESA’s SME Forum.
Until the review is complete, and we have a national position, we will not be requiring any additional action on the part of any holder of a waste management licence for a closed landfill. The only exception will be where we become aware that measures are necessary to prevent immediate pollution of the environment or harm to health. In any such instance we will ensure appropriate action is taken. Regular inspections of WML closed landfills will continue to ensure that existing obligations are being met.
ESA comment:
Whilst it is too early to assess the full implications of the Agency’s review, ESA recognises the need for the review to be thorough and accurate, and to lead to a proportionate response to the actual risks – if any- arising from sites.
ESA's Members operate within a strict regulatory framework to ensure a high level of protection of the environment. The review should therefore be seen in a wider context of potential environmental risk from other sources – including industrial sites, contaminated land and farm tips. The 1,224 sites being examined represent less than 5% of the total number of sites in the UK which have already surrendered their licences.
Many of the sites currently being reviewed started operations during the 1970s and were controlled first by Control of Pollution Act and then, after 1990, by the Environmental Protection Act. The more stringent regulatory control required introduced under PPC in 2002 would not apply during the operational lifetime of the sites, and it remains to be seen what sort of action could be taken if deemed necessary.
| 
