Procedure descriptions

Immission control - Apply for partial authorisation for the construction and operation of a plant in accordance with BImSchG

The construction and operation of an installation listed in Annex 1 of the Fourth Ordinance on the Implementation of the Federal Immission Control Act (Ordinance on Installations Requiring Authorisation - 4th BImSchV) requires an immission control permit from the competent authority.

On application, it is also possible to issue such a licence in stages. With a partial licence, you can begin with the construction and operation of the approved project section. In individual cases, a partial permit can help to speed up the realisation of a project.

Responsible department

The responsibilities in the area of immission control are regulated in the Immission Control Competence Ordinance of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

In most cases, the competent authority for installations requiring authorisation under immission control legislation is the local lower immission control authority, i.e.

the district office if the premises with the plant are located in a district,
the city administration if the premises with the installation are located in a city district.

A different responsibility applies in the following cases (e.g. for companies that are subject to the European Industrial Emissions Directive, the Hazardous Incident Ordinance or mining law):

Departments 5, Environment of the respective locally responsible regional councils are the competent immission control authorities for company premises on which

at least one installation marked with the letter E in column d of Annex 1 of the Ordinance on Installations Requiring a Licence,
at least one operating area in accordance with Section 3 (5a) of the Federal Immission Control Act (hazardous incident operation),
at least one installation that requires a licence pursuant to Section 60 (3) sentence 1 no. 2 or no. 3 of the Federal Water Act, or
at least one landfill in accordance with Article 10 in conjunction with Annex I of Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control), as amended

exists or is to be constructed.

Department 9, State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining of the Freiburg Regional Council is also the state-wide competent immission control authority for

Operational sites, including the facilities and activities located on them, which are subject to mining supervision,
Operating sites with cable cars and funicular railways used for passenger transport,
Operating sites with high-pressure gas pipelines which, as energy installations within the meaning of the Energy Industry Act, serve to supply gas and which are designed for a maximum permissible operating pressure of more than 16 bar,
Underground waste disposal facilities and
Industrial premises with installations used for the construction, significant expansion and significant modification of underground cavities.

Please ensure that you submit your licence application to the immission control authority responsible for your facility.

Details

Prerequisite

A partial licence may only be granted if there is a legitimate interest and the licensing requirements for the part of the installation comprising the partial licence are met. In addition, it must be possible to confirm in a preliminary forecast that the overall project is capable of being authorised. Individual issues may not be excluded from this process.

Procedure

The authorisation procedure requires a written application, which must be accompanied by the drawings, explanations and other documents required to check the authorisation requirements. If further documents are required by the responsible immission control authority or the respective specialised authorities for an assessment, these must be submitted subsequently. The procedure for a partial permit corresponds to that of a formal or simplified permit procedure for the construction and operation of an installation requiring a permit under immission control legislation. The parts of the entire installation not covered by the partial licence must be approved by further partial licences.

Deadlines

Construction and operation of the system may only begin after the licence has been granted.

Required documents

The application must be accompanied by the documents required for an assessment. These are, for example

Descriptions of the project, including information on plant components, process steps, material and product data,
schematic diagrams and flow charts,
Information on possible disruptions to normal operation,
Information on emissions and immissions,
Information on waste and waste water,
Construction documents: site plan, construction drawings, construction description.
Forms 1 to 11 of "Annex 1" of the Guidelines for authorisation and notification procedures in accordance with the Federal Immission Control Act of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment

The competent authority may request further documents if necessary. Coordinate in advance with the responsible immission control authority or the specialised authorities involved in the procedure regarding the documents required for an assessment.

If official decisions concerning the installation are communicated as part of the authorisation procedure (e.g. building permit), the documents required for this must also be submitted.

Costs

The fees are based on the investment costs for the system.

Processing time

As a rule, the licensing authority must check whether the documents are complete within one month of receiving the application. If the application documents are not sufficient for an assessment, they must be completed by the applicant.

Once the application documents are complete, the statutory deadlines begin for the authorisation procedure under immission control law, which is seven months for new installations in a formal procedure and three months in a simplified procedure. The deadlines can be extended by three months if this is necessary due to the difficulty of the examination or for reasons attributable to the applicant.