Joint press release with the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety and the LUBW State Agency for Environment, Measurements and Nature Conservation Baden-Wuerttemberg

Industrial waste in my neighbourhood?

New Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) provides online information about industrial emissions

As of 2008 industrial facilities must report their releases of pollutants to air, water and land as well as their transfer of waste and waste water in a Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR). The PRTR replaces the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER), and is to be established and operated following an international agreement drafted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) and signed by Germany and 40 other European countries, as well as a binding E-PRTR Regulation passed by the EU on 18 January 2006. The PRTR provides industrial facilities with a means to publicise their measures taken and investments made to reduce pollutant emissions.  It also educates citizens online about the pollutant emissions of the industrial facilities in their neighbourhoods.
No. 08/2008

To mark the start of registration of emissions, the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety and the LUBW State Agency for Environment, Measurements and Nature Conservation Baden-Wuerttemberg held a conference about the implementation of E-PRTR in Germany.  Some 150 delegates representing the private sector, associations, and public offices were apprised of the new pollutant release and transfer register.

The set-up and operation of PRTR signals a new path of cooperation for public authorities and industry in Germany. The federal and state governments are lending support to operators in the extensive work required to prepare emission reports, namely by providing a nationally uniform registration system.  Facility data will be stored using software called BUBE-Online. It will store the reports on large firing installations (13th Federal Immission Control Ordinance - BImSchV), and the Ordinance on Emissions declarations (11th BImSchV) will make it possible for facilities to use one set of data for all their reporting obligations once recorded.  The system represents an effective means of cutting down on bureaucracy.

All facilities subject to obligation to report must submit reports on 2007 emissions to their state authorities by 15 June 2008.  The federal states will review the reported emissions data and forward the reports to the federal government. Germany will pass PRTR data to the EU Commission by 30 June 2009. As of June 2009 citizens can find information about pollutant emissions from industrial facilities in their region online.

More information on the pollutant release and transfer register PRTR and the conference on E-PRTR implementation in Germany is available on the Internet

Please visit us at CeBIT. From 4-6 March 2008 in Hall 9 B60, the Federal Ministry of Interior booth will feature the experts and developers behind electronic PRTR, providing information about its implementation and answering questions about the new register data communication.

Dessau-Roßlau, 12 February 2008

 

 

Umweltbundesamt Hauptsitz

Wörlitzer Platz 1
06844 Dessau-Roßlau
Germany

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