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WASTE FACILITY PERMITTING & LICENSING
Our understanding of the waste facility permitting and licensing process end-to-end provides a holistic service.
We bridge the gap across all stakeholders, the client, contractors, planning and regulatory authorities and public consultation, where needed.
Helping waste clients meet obligations
European and national environmental legislation impose stringent legislative controls over a wide range of industrial and commercial activities. The legislation requires operators of ‘regulated facilities’ to obtain the appropriate permit to operate or discharge substances to air, water or land. The aim of the legislative regime is to protect the environment and to promote best practice in the operation of the regulated facilities.
Assisting Planning and Construction through permitting and licensing
Our teams have many years of experience in supporting planning applications, obtaining environmental permits, and supporting the construction of regulated facilities in the most cost-effective way. We work with operators to provide permit compliance by environmental monitoring and reporting services. In addition, our analyses supports validation operational issues by ensuring compliance with waste acceptance procedures and practices.
Client Due Diligence
We prepare permit variations to comply with changing legislational operational practices and to facilitate change of operator through permit transfers. Our environmental monitoring data can also feed into risk assessment and management strategies to ensure compliance with the permit licence. These monitoring services can form the basis of the eventual permit surrender application.
Assessments to support Permit Processes
To support permit processes we provide environmental risk assessments; landfill gas risk assessments; hydrogeological risk assessments; stability risk assessments; fire prevention plans; odour and pest risk assessments and management plans; and environmental management systems.
Experienced with Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Facilities
We have worked across all developmental phases on behalf of a broad range of facilities, including hazardous, non-hazardous and inert landfill sites, Material Recycling Facilities (MRF), Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) facilities, In-Vessel Compositing (IVC) facilities, Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATF) for end-of-life vehicles, and bespoke facilities e.g. ship and oil rig decommissioning. In addition, our permitting experience extends to a wider range of industrial processes, including non-ferrous metal melting, wood treatment, wood combustion and mineral extraction and processing.
Site Selection, Permit, Design of Solid Waste Disposal and Modern Waste Facilities
We help clients in many ways, consulting on site selection, permit application, or design new solid waste disposal facilities or upgrade existing facilities, ensuring optimum solutions for capacity, staging and community acceptance. Our team have advised on planning, permitting and construction of modern waste facilities. Our aim is to progress projects on time, on budget and costeffectively. We consider the impacts of alternative technologies in integrated waste management systems.
When you work with ByrneLooby, an Ayesa Company, you can be assured our experts understand the latest technical issues, regulatory drivers and the commercial pressures of the waste industry.
Waste facility Permitting & Licensing Services
We help clients secure permits across a wide range of areas including waste and resources:
• Solid Waste Management and Disposal
Municipal Waste Facility
• Landfill Development and remediation for repurpose
• Waste to Energy Facilities
• Quarry Mines and Tips
• Urban Development
• Water Abstraction and Wastewater Teatment and Discharge
• Air Quality and Emissions to Atmosphere
• Reclamation and Dredging
• Flood Defence, Stormwater Management and
Land Drainage
• Mineral and Resources Extraction
ENVIRONMENTAL PERMITTING SERVICES
• Applications for Environment Agency, NRW,
SEPA and Local Authority regulated permits and discharge consents • Air dispersion modelling • Bioaerosol risk assessments • Cost/benefit analysis of current post-closure management fees against likely surrender application costs • Environmental Risk Assessments (ERA) • Erosion control • Expert witness support following legal action by the regulator • Hydrogeological and hydrological risk assessments • Landfill engineering and waste stability and settlement risk assessments • Landfill gas risk assessments and carbon dioxide ICoP-based compliance limit reviews • Management and emissions management plans: e.g. odour, fugitive emissions and noise and vibration • Master planning and environmental management systems • Permit variations, consolidation, transfers and surrender • Post-closure restoration schemes using appropriate regulatory framework and permission • Pro-active liaison with the environmental regulators, planning authorities and local authorities • Site closure plans • Waste assessment and classification • Waste recovery advice for permit applications • Review of subsistence fee calculations
• Installation and monitoring of emissions to air, land and water
• Auditing of monitoring infrastructure to ensure it is fit for purpose and recommendation of remedial measures if required • Auditing and due diligence • Design of environmental monitoring schemes per with permit requirements
• Holistic approach to data management including sampling of monitoring points, chain of custody of analytical data, review against compliance limits (if required), and presentation of data to client or regulator • Installation of monitoring boreholes including surveying and CQA supervision • Provision of competent field monitoring technicians with appropriate transport to remote and location-sensitive sites.
• Tendering, instruction and management of competitively costed 3rd party laboratory services
PLANNING AND LEGAL SERVICES
Our established relationships with environmental regulators, planning and local authorities help to progress projects
• Desk-based studies, site investigations and environmental monitoring • Human Health and Environmental Risk
Assessments (HHRA) • Pilot studies/remediation trials
• Project management support (contract support, resident engineer, verification of works) • Regulatory support (liaison planning, environmental health, EA, EPA, Supreme
Council of the Environment Building Control,
NHBC, Coal Authority etc.)
PROJECT FOCUS: A ‘FIRST CLASS’ APPROACH TO EXPANDING ONE OF THE BUSIEST AIRPORTS IN THE WORLD
HEATHROW AIRPORT EXPANSION
OUR ROLE
Our team was appointed to provide environmental assessment, permitting support for the project as well as landfill remediation and design. The Heathrow Expansion Programme is a £14bn project to construct a third runway and new taxiways linking it to the rest of the airport complex, a new terminal building and satellite, additional stand areas, newairport gateways, carparks and other associated infrastructure. It will involve re-routing the M25, diversion of rivers and substantial earthworks to achieve.
SOLUTION
We provided advice on the remediation of three existing permitted landfill sites located along the line of the proposed new runway and to design and support the permit applications for four new landfills. The new runway is to be constructed on top of three pre-existing landfills posing complex remediation and foundational design issues. The existing leachate and landfill gas control systems needed to be replaced and a new capping system installed.
The four new landflls are being designed to EU/ UK standards and need to take account of their close proximity to a working airfield with associated access restrictions. Our Waste team were subcontracted to Jacobs who were appointed as lead earthworks consultant for the project. Our role in this project was multi-disciplinary with our consultants providing a full range of services; earthworks design, site investigation support, hydrogeological risk assessments, stability risk assessments, air quality assessment, design of landfill gas, leachate and odour control systems, environmental monitoring, regulatory compliance and advice on landfill tax. Location: Heathrow Capital Value: £15bn Project Name: Heathrow Airport Expansion Country: UK Client: Jacobs Engineering
PROJECT FOCUS: WASTE RECOVERY ACTIVITY IN A HIGHLY SENSITIVE HABITAT
BROCKHOLES QUARRY, PRESTON
OVERVIEW
The site operator Hargreaves North West appointed ByrneLooby to help secure planning and permit applications to restore their 24-hectare quarry in Lancashire. Previously, the quarry had been used for the extraction of sand and gravel for the construction industry. The site is located in a sensitive groundwater and surface water regime. The restoration scheme will need some 246,000 cubic metres of suitable restoration materials. to be imported and placed. The recovered area will be developed into a wet grassland habitat with emergent species margins. The site will also house lakeside fishing lodges with access tracks and parking.
INNOVATION / VALUE ADD
Getting the project off on the right foot is key and bridging the gap across stakeholders is where our teams excel. At the start of the project, we held discussions with the client, local planning authorities and environmental regulators to determine the scope of the application. Our team designed and installed the monitoring boreholes, essential to complete the flood risk and hydrogeological assessments. These asessments also feed into the surface water management plan. When the Planning Permission and S106 agreement were secured our team devised the Waste Recovery Plan (which included the following assessments: environmental site setting and design, environmental risk assessment, hydrogeological and hydrological risk assessment and the environmental management system) This application was successfully approved by the Environmental Agency. As operations continue, ByrneLooby will continue to monitor ground gas, groundwater and surface water to assess any impacts on the sensitive surrounds, water and ecosystems. This monitoring is also important as it forms the basis for the future site closure and permit surrender. In addition, on behalf of the client, we will assess waste to confirm its suitability as site restoration material. Our role will continue through the restoration and closure phases as we provide informed expertise to our client to help expediate works towards completion and provide authorities with the rquired information for compliance throughout the entire project lifecycle. Location: Preston, Lancashire Capital Value: Undisclosed Project Name: Brockholes Quarry Country: UK Client: Hargreaves North West
PROJECT FOCUS: SUCCESSFUL AQUISITION OF PERMIT VARIATION FOR EDWIN RICHARDS QUARRY
EDWIN RICHARDS QUARRY RESTORATION & INFILL
OVERVIEW
Edwin Richards Quarry was a former hard rock quarry over 80 metres deep located in an urbanised area west of Birmingham in the Midlands, UK. It had been partially infilled with municipal wastes but then mothballed after waste inputs reduced as a result of increased recycling and rising landfill taxes. Over 5 million cubic metres of void remained at the site and the unrestored quarry posed an ongoing stability and safety hazard.
The multinational utilities company which operates the site is one of the largest waste management companies in the UK. The Byrne Looby team were able to advise them on how to re-permit the site to complete its restoration using a specific range of non-hazardous wastes, make use of the remaining airspace asset and realise the development potential of the wider site
PRIMARY ROLE
ByrneLooby worked closely with the client’s estates team to develop a forward master plan for the whole site, support their planning application and prepare the permit variation application to the Environment Agency. We were successful in obtaining the permit variation which provided for a highly efficient methodology of infilling the site, both in construction cost and landfill tax-saving terms.
INNOVATION / VALUE ADD
The permit variation application was complex involving the preparation of quantitative groundwater and geotechnical risk assessments and innovative waste acceptance protocols. Subsequently, a separate permit was secured for a hazardous soil wastes treatment facility on the site. Byrne Looby has also installed new environmental monitoring boreholes and provides ongoing regulatory compliance advice. Location: Birmingham, UK Capital Value: Undisclosed Project Name: Edwin Richards Quarry Restoration & Infill Country: UK Client: Waste Recycling UK
