Environmental permit, notification procedure and registration
Last updated: 14.09.2023The environmental permit, general notification or registration procedure applies to activities that cause the risk of environmental pollution. The Environmental Protection Act defines which procedure is applied. The environmental protection decree defines whether the matter will be handled by the municipal or state environmental protection authority. An environmental permit, a notification according to the general notification procedure or registration is not required for short-term, experimental activities, the purpose of which is, for example, to test new technology.
In the municipality of Hollola, the supervisory division of the Vitality Committee acts as the licensing authority in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act. Environmental control office holders prepare the decisions. Applications and notifications are delivered to the registry office. A fee according to the tax of the environmental protection authority of the municipality of Hollola is charged for the treatment. It is recommended to use the services of an expert consultant when preparing the application or notification.
More information about procedures
An environmental permit is required for certain activities that cause a risk of environmental pollution. The activities that require an environmental permit are presented in sections 527 – 2014 of the Environmental Protection Act 27/30. Permitted activities include, for example, certain activities related to waste or wastewater treatment, crushing plants and stone quarries operating for more than 50 days, and outdoor motor racing tracks. Some operations are subject to a permit when located in an important or other groundwater area suitable for water procurement.
Regulations can be given in the environmental permit, e.g. scope of operations, monitoring, emissions and their reduction. The condition for granting a permit is, among other things, that the activity must not cause harm to health or significant environmental pollution or the risk of it, taking into account the regulations to be issued.
The environmental permit authority informs about the environmental permit application with a notice and requests the necessary statements from other authorities. Stakeholders can submit reminders and residents of the project's affected area can express their opinion on the matter. After hearing the statements and reminders to the applicant, the licensing authority makes a decision on the matter.
The permit decision can be appealed to the Vaasa Administrative Court, and this decision further to the Supreme Administrative Court, if it grants an appeal permit. As a rule, environmental permits are valid indefinitely, unless the project is temporary in nature.
The general notification procedure according to the Environmental Protection Act is a procedure similar to the environmental permit procedure that came into effect in 2019, but a slightly lighter one, which applies to certain activities with less environmental impact.
The obligation to notify the activity is stipulated in § 115 a of the Environmental Protection Act, and the activities subject to notification are listed in Annex 4 of the act. In the general notification procedure, the authority issues an appealable decision based on the information in the notification submitted by the operator. The notification must be made at least 120 days before the start of the activity. The information to be reported basically corresponds to the information required in the environmental permit application.
The scope of the general notification procedure includes, for example, a large part of animal shelters, sawmills (capacity of at least 20 m000 of sawn timber per year) and many activities in the food and feed industry. However, activities that fall under the general notification procedure require an environmental permit if they are located in an important or other groundwater area suitable for water procurement.
All activities that pose a risk of environmental pollution do not require an environmental permit or apply a general notification procedure, instead some activities are registered in the national environmental protection information system. Activities to be registered are the activities mentioned in Annex 2 of the Environmental Protection Act under certain conditions. These include, for example, asphalt stations, distribution stations, activities that use organic solvents up to 50 tons per year (e.g. vehicle painting), fixed concrete product stations and concrete product factories.
Registration is a recording procedure in nature, where no administrative decision is made and regulations are not issued. The municipality's environmental protection authority must register the activity within the deadline stipulated in the Environmental Protection Act. The operation can be started once it is registered. The authority must notify the operator of the registration of the activity without delay.
However, according to § 30 of the Environmental Protection Act, an environmental permit is required for an activity that is fundamentally subject to the registration procedure, for example, when the activity is located in an important or other groundwater area suitable for water procurement use, or when it may cause an unreasonable burden as referred to in the Neighborhood Relations Act.