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🔎 Key takeaways
Let's start with a definition...
A classified facility is any facility or activity that may present dangers or inconveniences either to the convenience of the neighborhood, or to public health, safety, or sanitation, or to agriculture, or to the protection of nature, the environment, and landscapes, or to the economical use of natural, agricultural, or forest lands, or to the rational use of energy, or to the conservation of sites and monuments as well as elements of archaeological heritage.
The origins of ICPEs
On August 31, 1794, an explosion occurred at the Grenelle gunpowder factory. It caused the death of over a thousand people (workers and local residents) and resulted in very significant material damage, including outside the site.
This disaster helped define the foundations of regulations for classified facilities for environmental protection.
In 1810, an imperial decree was issued concerning factories and workshops that emit unhealthy and inconvenient odors. This decree specifies that these establishments cannot be created without permission from the administrative authority and are divided into three classes:
1st class: establishments that must be located away from private dwellings
2nd class: factories and workshops whose distance from dwellings is not strictly necessary, but whose establishment should only be permitted after ensuring that the operations carried out there are performed in a way that does not inconvenience neighboring property owners or cause them harm
3rd class: establishments that can remain near dwellings without inconvenience, but must remain subject to police supervision.
Thus, this imperial decree lays the groundwork for a nomenclature of classified facilities.
It would then be necessary to wait for the law of December 19, 1917, which improved this system by subjecting the least harmful establishments to a simple declaration regime.
The 1re nomenclature for Classified Facilities was introduced by Decree No. 53-578 of May 20, 1953, with the regimes: declaration and authorization.
Subsequently, the law of July 19, 1976, became the legal basis for industrial environmental regulation in France, allowing for the issuance of a single authorization and regulating all relevant aspects: accidental risk, waste, discharges into water, air, soil, etc.
The Classified Facilities Inspectorate then became the competent authority for the application of this legislation.
Following the AZF factory accident in Toulouse in 2001, the law of July 30, 2003, strengthened the prevention of industrial risks.
In 2010, the registration regime was created, also known as "simplified authorization." The nomenclature now includes three regimes (declaration, registration, and authorization).
Meanwhile, in Europe, the SEVESO directive was introduced in 1982 after the 1976 SEVESO industrial accident. It was subsequently revised twice to strengthen the prevention of major accidents following industrial incidents, notably the Rhine pollution in 1986, the Danube pollution in 2000, the fireworks explosion in Enschede in 2000, and the AZF explosion in 2001.
In France, approximately 1300 establishments are classified as "SEVESO."
In 2010, the "IED" directive concerning Industrial Emissions mandated a comprehensive approach and applies to the most polluting industrial installations. Section 3xxx of the ICPE nomenclature was introduced.
In 2015, with the implementation of the CLP regulation, the nomenclature was modified again with the creation of sections 4xxx - hazardous substances and mixtures.
The ICPE nomenclature groups activities and substances and is divided into four categories:
1xxx: substances;
2xxx: activities;
3xxx: IED activities (Industrial Emissions Directive);
4xxx: hazardous substances and mixtures.
Depending on the level of risk, an ICPE is subject to declaration, registration, or authorization. Section 4xxx headings can also classify authorized Seveso lower-tier or upper-tier establishments.
The establishment's ICPE classification
To determine your establishment's ICPE classification, we recommend following these steps:
- Create an inventory of substances and activities present on your site;
- Identify the relevant categories;
- Determine the ICPE classification regime for each category (Non-classified, Declaration, Registration, Authorization, … SEVESO)