Industry and other water users in Scotland who abstract, impound or discharge to the water environment are being given the opportunity to comment on a new scheme to assess compliance with environmental licence conditions.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is looking to streamline its method for assessing compliance and is urging operators of fish farms, hydropower schemes, public water & sewerage supply and industries such as whisky manufacture, paper and pulp and mining and quarrying to comment on its consultation.
The watchdog has identified that improvements to its approach to assessing compliance with its licences will lead to more effective, transparent and efficient regulation. It is proposed to phase-in the new scheme from 1 January 2009.
Colin Bayes, Director of Environmental Protection and Improvement, said: “SEPA aims to be an excellent environmental regulator, enabling business to understand their environmental responsibilities, to comply with the regulations and to realise the many economic benefits of good environmental practice and performance.
“The new scheme is about SEPA streamlining compliance with licence conditions; it’s not about asking industry and other waters users to provide additional data or increase reporting effort. The new scheme will be targeted, efficient and effective. It will help us to deliver the desired environmental outcomes by working directly with licence holders. Public scrutiny of the published compliance results, along with potential financial incentives, is intended to encourage better environmental performance. The new scheme will direct SEPA’s resources to where they are required most, protecting the interests of those who depend on the water environment for drinking water, business and recreation.”
Scottish Water’s Environmental Regulation Manager, Jim Conlin, said: “Scottish Water welcomes the principles of SEPA’s compliance assessment scheme, in particular the straight-forward approach adopted and the commitment to more transparent regulation. We aim to fully engage in scheme trials over the summer, particularly as a number of our sites are regulated across different regimes. We will respond to the consultation in due course.”
The consultation was largely shaped by industry representatives at a workshop hosted by SEPA in May this year. Additionally, licence holders have volunteered to work alongside SEPA by participating in joint trials of the scheme during summer 2008. The deadline for submission of responses is 3 October 2008.
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