ABSTRACT
Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) and Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) are typical Command and Control regulatory regimes in that they use ‘licensing’ as the primary pollution control mechanism. They differ from other regulatory regimes in that they are designed to control polluting discharges from a relatively narrow range of highly polluting industries. In contrast to the single environmental medium focus of the water pollution controls contained in the Water Resources Act (WRA) 1991 and the waste management controls contained in Pt II of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990, the IPC and IPPC regimes are designed to regulate polluting emissions, discharged by industrial processes, into all three environmental media (air, water and land). Thus, industrial sites subject to IPC or IPPC generally require only one licence authorising all polluting discharges from that site. IPC and IPPC are ‘one stop shops’ and it is not necessary for the site operator to obtain separate licences in respect of polluting discharges to water, air and land from the regulators who police each of those statutory regimes. IPC and IPPC adopt an holistic perspective, paying attention to the polluting impacts of the emissions discharged by industries into the environment as a whole. Any licence issued under the IPC regime will only authorise discharges into the environmental media (air, water or land) which cause the least damage to the environment. This is the ‘best practicable environmental option’ (BPEO) principle which guides IPC regulatory decision making in respect of sites which are discharging pollutants into more than one environmental medium. The BPEO principle is not specifically referred to in the IPPC controls, but its influence has helped shape the contours of the IPPC controls.
