2023 inspection priorities for classified facilities for environmental protection

Each year, the ministry sets the inspection priorities for ICPEs. In 2023, drought, methanizers, and atmospheric emissions are central to the inspections.

Laëtitia Evrard
Consultante HSE
Publication : 
14.02.2023
Table of Contents
Example H2
Request a demo

Please note: This article concerns French legislation. The requirements described may not apply in other countries.

‍

Each year, a directive from the Ministry of Ecological Transition defines the national inspection actions for classified facilities for environmental protection (ICPEs).

For the year 2023, it is therefore the directive of December 12, 2022, published on December 30, 2022, that defined the inspection priorities for ICPEs.

Firstly, ongoing actions:

  • Regulatory oversight of classified facilities (inspection visits, processing of authorization requests, review of studies submitted by the operator, review of files for cessation of activity, combating illegal activities, particularly concerning waste management …);
  • Other regulatory oversight missions, within and outside classified facilities (application of mining regulations and those related to post-mining; control of hazardous equipment and products, inspections related to the implementation of the anti-waste law, hazardous pipelines…);
  • Integration of technological and health risks (PPRT, management of polluted sites and soils, information for operators and stakeholders on regulations and the state of the environment, …).

Secondly, priority thematic actions:

  • Management of drought episodes: drafting of supplementary prefectural decrees, verification of compliance with "drought" requirements.
  • Monitoring compliance with the provisions of ministerial decrees on general requirements related to gas leak monitoring in and around methanizers.
  • Monitoring of atmospheric emissions from authorized facilities: methods for channeling / capturing effluents, relevance and representativeness of measurements, compliance with standards for measurements taken

Alongside these ICPE inspection priorities, this instruction also sets thematic guidelines for inspection visits:

  • Firstly, systematic actions:
  1. Post-Lubrizol approach : implementation of regulatory changes for activities involving the storage of flammable liquids in mobile containers and/or above-ground tanks (authorization and declaration regimes) and facilities for storing combustible materials in covered warehouses falling under heading 1510 (authorization and registration regimes).
  2. Inspection actions for sites subject to the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), including regularization procedures for installations benefiting from acquired rights, through the publication of supplementary prefectural decrees to comply with European regulations.
  • Secondly, optional actions (by region):

‍

Photo credit: 270536411 @kbarzycki