The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine has published a draft order that contains requirements for a basic report and assessment of land and groundwater pollution, as well as its methodology.
The Ministry published this document on its official website.
Full title of the order: “On Approval of the Form and Requirements for the Content of the Baseline Report, Assessment of Land and Groundwater Pollution and Methodology for Assessing the State of Land and Groundwater Pollution at an Industrial Site.”
Why was it necessary to develop such an order?
Part 2 of Article 25 of the Law of Ukraine “On Integrated Industrial Pollution Prevention and Control” stipulates that if the activities of an industrial facility include the use, production or release of hazardous substances, the operator of the facility, together with an application for an integrated environmental permit (IEP) or amendments thereto, shall prepare and submit a basic report to the Ministry of Environment.
Therefore, the Ministry must develop and approve
- the form and content requirements for the baseline report;
- requirements for assessing the state of land and groundwater pollution;
- a list of hazardous substances;
- a methodology for assessing the state of land and groundwater pollution.
What is the baseline report for?
The Ministry of Ecology will use it to determine the terms of the integrated environmental permit, and subsequently to assess the extent to which the condition of land and groundwater has deteriorated (or improved) during the operation of the facility and/or the operation of the industrial site.
The baseline report and assessment of land and groundwater contamination will allow to
- determine the current state of contamination;
- assess risks to the environment and human health;
- develop measures to prevent and minimize the negative impact of industrial facilities;
- fully define the scope of the facility operator's responsibilities for remediation in order to return the industrial site to the condition specified in the baseline report after the facility is shut down.
What information will operators provide in the baseline report?
The following data will be included in this document:
- information on the use of the industrial site as of the date of the baseline report and on the use of the industrial site in previous years (if available)
- information on measurements of land and groundwater contamination levels reflecting the state at the time of the report (if available) or new measurements of land and groundwater contamination levels.
The facility operator, at its own discretion, will be able to include other information on the state of land and groundwater pollution within the industrial site in the basic report.
If changes are made to the IEP, the operator should assess the need to update the baseline report.
Procedure for preparing the document
The process of creating a baseline report includes 8 steps, combined into 3 stages:
- determining the need for its preparation (stages 1-3);
- determining the method of its creation (stages 4-7);
- preparation of the basic report (stage 8).
More details on each of the stages and the Methodology for assessing the state of land and groundwater pollution can be found here.
According to the Ministry of Environment, large and medium-sized enterprises will spend an additional UAH 14,267 in the first year of implementation of this regulation, while their total costs over 5 years will amount to UAH 71,144.
Who will not need to prepare a basic report
Companies will not have to prepare this document in the following cases:
- the activities of the facility will not include the use, production or release of hazardous substances;
- the hazardous substances to be used, produced or released by the facility are not capable of causing land and/or groundwater pollution;
- the relevant hazardous substances do not pose a high risk of land and/or groundwater pollution within the industrial site.
Earlier, EcoPolitic reported that the Ministry of Ecology has developed a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with a list of pollutants, physical and biological factors that are subject to regulation when issuing an integrated environmental permit.
