Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control is the regulation of industrial and agricultural activities in relation to the environment, in an advanced way, overcoming the principle of a component approach to the protection of the environment and the strategy of end technologies, which removed the resulting pollution mainly using gravity separators, filters or other cleaning devices that often led only to the transfer of pollution from one component of the environment to another.
The main emphasis is placed on a preventive approach, where pollution is prevented before it occurs by choosing suitable production procedures, the so-called best available techniques (BAT), and, if possible, by using environmentally friendly substances. A summary of European best available techniques is given in reference documents on BAT (Reference Document on Best Available Techniques - BREF), which is prepared by the European Commission in cooperation with industry, non-governmental organizations and member states.
An integrated approach to environmental protection is enshrined in European Union legislation by Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on industrial emissions. European regulations are transposed into the Czech legal system by Act No. 76/2002 Coll., on integrated prevention and limitation of pollution, on Integrated Pollution Register and on amendments to certain Acts (Act on Integrated Prevention), as amended. Annex No. 1 of this Act defines the relevant categories of individual industrial activities for the operation of which an integrated permit is required. Samples of applications for integrated permits and other important documents for operators are contained in Decree No. 288/2013 Coll., on the implementation of certain provisions of the Act on Integrated Prevention.
In the CEI, this integrated approach to the protection of the environment as a whole is carried out in coordination and cooperation of experienced inspectors specialized in these agendas, i.e. coordinators of integrated agendas, it is secured by the CEI’s professional departments of technical protection of the environment (air protection, waste management and water protection). The basic activity in this area is supervisory - control activity. Another fundamental, very important and preventive activity is non-supervisory activity consisting, for example, of issuing expert opinions of the Inspectorate (especially for requests for the issuance of integrated permits or their changes for facilities falling under the IPPC, also within the framework of EIA/SEA, etc.).
What is IPR?
By joining the EU and signing important international documents (the Aarhus Convention, the Protocol on Registers of Releases and Transfers of Polluting Substances), the Czech Republic undertook to fulfill its obligations in the field of environmental protection, which result from these international acts. This is mainly about collecting and disseminating information about the environment, enabling free public access to this information and creating a register of releases and transfers of pollutants.
The Integrated Pollution Register (IPR) was therefore established as a publicly accessible information system of emissions and transfers of pollutants in the Czech Republic.
The issue of IPR is addressed (following European Regulation No. 166/2006/EC, E-PRTR) by Act No. 25/2008 Coll., on the integrated pollution register and the integrated system for fulfilling reporting obligations in the field of environmental protection and amending some laws, and Government Executive Order No. 145/2008 Coll., establishing a list of pollutants and threshold values and data required for reporting to the integrated environmental pollution register.
The scope of the required data reported to the IPR is defined in Appendix No. 3 of the aforementioned Decree No. 145/2008 Coll. It is a list of data that mandatory entities must report to the MoE. The content of the annex is based on Annex III of the Regulation on E-PRTR with clarifications for reporting to the IPR. Operators must report to the IPR all required information about the establishment and leakages and transfers through the public information system of the public administration (https://www.irz.cz).