Use the following guidance to help you complete your application and comply with the conditions of your environmental permit.
Our guidance
‘How to Comply with your Environmental Permit’ contains general guidance on complying with permit conditions. You can download a copy of 'How to Comply' on our generic guidance page:
Sector technical guidance
Read the guidance documents for the mining waste sector:
- Guidance on financial guarantees for mining waste facilities
A link to this publication will appear here soon
- Guidance on surrender of permits - those mining waste activities that include management of inert extractive waste and are not a Category A are eligible for basic surrender.
(coming soon)
Horizontal guidance
The horizontal guidance provides information that is relevant to all sectors regulated under the Environmental Permitting Regulations. For example, environmental risk assessment, noise, and protection of land.
Regulatory guidance
Regulatory guidance notes are Environment Agency guidance on policy and legal interpretation issues associated with putting the Environmental Permitting Regulations in place. Of particular relevance to mining waste operations are:
- RGN EPR 1 Understanding the meaning of Operator
- RGN EPR 2 Understanding the meaning of regulated facility
- RGN EPR 9 Demonstrating land and groundwater are protected to assist the surrender of an environmental permit
Making an application
There is one application form, which must be used to apply for a new bespoke or standard permit or to vary, transfer or surrender your permit.
The parts of the form you need to complete will depend on your specific site. We expect the majority of mining waste permits to be for inert extractive waste and not Category A sites. The most frequent application scenarios are summarised on the following web page:
Environmental Permitting (EP) Charges
Our Environmental Permitting charges pages explain how much a permit will cost:
Operational Risk Appraisal (Opra)
To find out how we assess the environmental risk of a site operation that comes under the Environmental Permitting Regulations, please visit our Opra page. We use the output from Opra to work out charges and for planning our permitting and compliance activity:
Environmental Permitting Regulations
Information to help you understand the wider regulatory framework:
Government guidance
Defra has produced a series of guidance documents. These include 'Core Environmental Permitting Guidance', which describes the general permitting and compliance requirements, and specific guidance on the Mining Waste Directive:
