AIR > Details

Emissions monitoring is conducted to determine the concentration of a gas or particulate matter in the air. This part of the EVC tour focuses on air-emissions monitoring requirements contained in the following air-pollution-control regulatory programs:

• Clean Air Act
• Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC)

Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC)

The overall objective of IPPC is to offer a high level of protection to the environment as a whole. To achieve this, IPPC will use a system of permits covering:

• Plant operating conditions;
• Emission limits to air, land and water; and
• Annual reporting of pollutant releases.

Amongst many practices, the IPPC Regulations cover installations where one or more of the following categories of activities (subject to certain capacity thresholds and limits) are carried out:

• Energy industry - e.g. power stations, oil and gas refineries, combined heat and power plants;

For further details on IPPC - click here

Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act 1993 (applicable in England, Scotland and Wales) and the Clean Air (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, for which Local Authorities are the relevant environmental regulator, are the most recent main pieces of legislation covering general air pollution. Failure to comply with the provisions of the Act (and the Order in NI) is an offence.

- You must prevent the emission of dark smoke from any chimney on your premises:

This includes chimneys serving furnaces, fixed boilers or industrial plant whether they are attached to buildings or not.
There are some instances where dark smoke may be emitted without an offence being committed such as during start up conditions if all practicable steps have been taken to prevent or minimise the emissions.

- You must prevent the emission of dark smoke from any industrial or trade premises e.g. burning tyres and cables:

This applies to burning materials on a site that you own or a site where you are working such as a building or demolition site or land used for commercial agriculture or horticulture.

In England, Wales and Scotland is not necessary for Local Authorities to have witnessed the emissions of dark smoke to take action against you: evidence of the burning of materials that potentially give rise to dark smoke is sufficient.(This way the law aims to stop people creating dark smoke at night and using the lack of visual evidence as a defence!) This does not apply in Northern Ireland.

NOTE: Dark smoke is defined by reference to “the Ringelman chart” (BS 2742C). This is a chart of 5 shades of grey. Dark smoke refers to Ringelman shade 2 or darker.

- You must inform your Local Authority before installing a furnace or a fixed boiler -
Any new furnaces or boilers must be able to operate continuously without emitting smoke when burning the type of fuel for which they have been designed. Obtaining a planning permissions/building warrant from the Local Authority for the construction of the chimney or plant is not sufficient: you need the Local Authorities specific approval under the Clean Air Act or the Clean Air (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.

Click here for details on the Clean Air Act