Industrial emissions; plant monitoring

Installations which, due to their nature or operation, are particularly likely to cause harmful environmental impacts on the air, soil or water are regularly monitored by the competent authorities.

EU Directive 2010/75 on industrial emissions (IED), which was recently amended by EU Directive 2024/1785, is an important element of European environmental protection and was transposed into national law in 2013.

It aims to prevent, reduce and, as far as possible, eliminate environmental pollution of air, water and soil. This is achieved by closely monitoring (industrial) facilities that fall under this directive (known as IE facilities) and publishing the results of these on-site inspections. In addition, a permit is required for the operation of every IE installation.

The IE Directive applies to

• Industrial plants marked "E" in Annex 1 of the 4th BImSchV, such as refineries, chemical plants and many power plants.
• Stand-alone wastewater treatment plants that are approved in Germany in accordance with § 60 Para. 3 Sentence 1 No. 2 WHG,
• Landfills that fall under No. 5.4 of Annex 1 of the IE Directive.

For the cross-media, integrated protection approach of the IED, the IE plants are brought into line with a uniform technology standard, the so-called best available techniques (BAT). In addition, the IED contains detailed requirements for plant monitoring, reporting and the associated publication obligations. These measures are also intended to create a level playing field in the EU.

Monitoring plans are drawn up for each administrative district to ensure the scheduled and transparent monitoring of IE installations. These apply to all IE installations and are published on the websites of the seven governments. On the basis of these monitoring plans, a monitoring program is drawn up for the IE installations by the locally responsible monitoring authority, which is published on the website of the respective monitoring authority. Please also refer to the links at the bottom of this page.

Competent monitoring authority(ies) for

• electrical installations are the governments, the Bavarian State Office for the Environment, the district administrative authorities or the mining authorities,
• independent wastewater treatment plants are the district administrative authorities,
• Landfills in the deposition and decommissioning phase are the Bavarian State Office for the Environment.

The locally responsible monitoring authorities carry out a risk assessment for each individual IE facility in their area of responsibility to determine the monitoring frequency for on-site inspections. Among other things, the size, complexity and operating time of the installation are taken into account, as well as the substances used or any noise pollution. The regular inspections take place every one to three years; this is also possible more frequently if there is a specific reason.

After each on-site inspection of an IE installation, the competent monitoring authority prepares a monitoring report with the relevant findings on compliance with the permit requirements. The monitoring report is published on the website of the competent monitoring authority within four months of the on-site inspection. All notices issued for IE installations after January 2013 can also be found on the website of the approval authority.