Intensive farming risk assessment for your environmental permit

You must follow this guide if you’re applying for a permit or to change (vary) a permit for intensive farming under the Environmental Permitting Regulations.

As part of your risk assessment you must assess the following emissions:

• ammonia
• odour
• noise
• dust and bioaerosols (airborne particles that contain living organisms)
• ammonia

This is to check if they are likely to affect people or parts of the environment that could be harmed by emissions from your farm (called ‘receptors’).

Pre-application discussion

First,You youcan needrequest to fill in and submit the environmental permit pre-application advice form to arrange a pre-application discussion.discussion for your intensive farming permit.

In this discussion, the Environment Agency will:

• tell you about the application process
• identify nature conservation sites and neighbours close to your farm who will need to be considered in the environmental risk assessment

The Environment Agency will also tell you what should be included in the permit, for example:

• relevant buildings
• fuel storage
• carcass incinerators
• slurry storage

OdourAmmonia andscreening noise managementassessment

OdourYou andwill noiseneed fromto therequest farman mayammonia affectscreening receptorsassessment suchfor asyour local residents, schools, hospitals, parks or businesses.proposal.

You’ll need to submitgive writteninformation odourto andthe noiseEnvironment managementAgency plansto ashelp part of your application if:them:

• thereidentify arenature receptorsconservation sites within 400 metres of the siterelevant boundaryscreening distances
• thepredict siteexpected hasammonia beenemissions theresulting causefrom ofyour odour or noise complaints in the pastproposal

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assess the emissionspotential guideimpact toof findyour outproposal whaton younearby mustnature doconservation to prevent odour and noise pollution.

sites

Ammonia emissions

You must submithave a riskcompleted assessment of the impact of ammonia emissionsscreening fromassessment your site if you’re either:before:

• applying for a new bespokeintensive farming permit
• applying to change (vary) an existing environmental permit in a way that willhas causethe anpotential increaseto ofaffect ammonia emissions to air from your farm

Factors

Ammonia thatemission couldfactors causeand an increase of ammonia emissions include:

standards

• an

  The increaseEnvironment inAgency thewill numberwork of,out or change in the typemost ofappropriate animals‘emission youfactors’ keepbased on the farm

• an increase in the amount of manure or slurry you store
• a change to your site’slivestock designtype orand ventilationhousing thatsystem. couldYou leadcan tocheck higherthe standard ammonia concentrations
• aemissions changefactors they touse your site’s design or ventilation that could lead to ammonia settling on a nearby receptor, such as residential housing or a naturestarting conservationpoint site

Activitiesfor thatscreening release ammonia into water

assessments.

YouIf generallyyou cannotoperate get a permithousing forsystem activitiesnot thatlisted result in releasingthe standard ammonia intoemission water.

Ammoniagive screening

Theevidence Environmentof Agency will do a ‘distancesite-specific screening’ammonia onemission yourfactor applicationas topart checkof ifyour permit your farm is close to nature conservation sites.application.

AtYou thecan pre-applicationadjust discussion,these you’llstandard beemission askedfactors forin informationscenarios sowhere theyou Environment Agency can do a ‘simple screening’ of:use:

• expected ammonia emissions
• potential effects on nearby nature conversation sites

After this, you’ll be told if you need to produce a detailedlower modellingcrude assessmentprotein ofcontent ammoniain emissions to support your application.

Information you need to give for simple screening

In the pre-applicationanimal’s discussion, you’ll be asked to give:

diet
• farmother name,ammonia addressmitigation and Ordnance Survey grid referencemeasures
• ventilationan systemoccupancy typerate (fansignificantly orlower natural)
• ventilationthan locationthe (roofstandard or side mounted)rate
• height

You ofmust roofhave ventsagreement andfrom the fanEnvironment airflowAgency speedbefore inusing metres per second (if fans are roof mounted)

amount of manure stored on your farm at any onebespoke time, in tonnes

surface area (in square metres) of slurry storage facilities on your site, including lagoons

type of cover used on slurry storage

breakdown of animal numbers by type and by housing (for example, number of sows, growers and finishers on fully slatted floorings and partly slatted flooring)

the most appropriate ammonia emission factorsfactors. forDuring the livestockpre-application anddiscussion, housingyour type

sitepermitting planofficer (forwill newtell applications or variations that include changes to the site layout)

description of proposed changes (if you arewhether varyinga yourbespoke permit)

Ammoniafactor emissioncan factorsalso andbe standards

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The Environment Agency will assess your ammonia emissions against 3 standards to check the risk of air pollution:

• ammonia critical level
• nutrient nitrogen critical load
• acidity critical load

The Air Pollution Information System explains critical levels and loads.

Ammonia screening thresholds

The Environment Agency will checkidentify if there are any protected nature conservation sites close to your farm based on the following screening distances.

Nature conservation site designation	Distance from site in km	Lower threshold %	Upper threshold %
Special Protection Areas (SPAs), Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), Ramsar sites	5km	1%	No upper threshold
Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs)	5km	20%	50%
Local nature sites (National Nature Reserves, Local Nature Reserves, Local Wildlife Sites, Ancient Woodlands)	2km	100%	100%

Results of simpleammonia screening assessment

The Environment Agency will tell you if you need to submit detailed ammonia modelling after completing their ammonia screening assessment.

You will need to submit detailed modelling if:

• your proposed activities are within 250 metres of any protected conservation site
• ammonia screening assessment shows ammonia emissions from your proposal could affect protected conservation sites
• the original permit for your farm included instructions on how you must reduce ammonia emissions, known as an ‘improvement condition’, and this required you to reduce ammonia emissions at a protected nature conservation site

You will need to do detailed modelling if your ammonia screening result is above thesethe following screening thresholds:

• 1% for for SPAs, , SACs and and Ramsar sites
• 50% for for SSSIs
• 100% for local nature sites

If you are within 5 kilometres of a a SSSI and and your result is between the lower and upper screening thresholds, the Environment Agency will check other permitted farms in the area. If the combined emissions are above the upper threshold, you will need to do detailed modelling.

Detailed modelling

To

How to do detailed modelling,modelling

Detailed youmodelling needuses to use computer software that models the passage of a substance as it travels through the atmosphere until it reaches the ground.

Detailed modelling requires specialist knowledge. You can find a consultant to do it for you. They’ll charge for their services. services. Your industry body representative may be able to offer further advice.

ContactFor guidance on detailed modelling, see Environmental permitting: air dispersion modelling reports.

Odour and noise management

Odour and noise from the Environmentfarm Agencymay affect receptors such as local residents, schools, hospitals, parks or businesses.

You’ll need to submit written odour and noise management plans as part of your application if:

• there are receptors within 400 metres of the site boundary
• the site has been the cause of odour or noise complaints in the past

Read the comply with your environmental permit if guidance to find out what you wantmust do to doprevent yourodour ownand detailednoise modelling.pollution.

Ammonia emissions risk assessment

ForYou guidancemust onsubmit detaileda modellingrisk assessment of the impact of ammonia emissions from your site if you’re either:

• applying for environmentala permittingnew applications,bespoke check permit
• applying to change (vary) an existing environmental permitting:permit in a way that will cause an increase of ammonia emissions to air dispersionfrom modellingyour reports.farm

Factors that could cause an increase of ammonia emissions include:

• an increase in the number of, or change in the type of animals you keep on the farm
• an increase in the amount of manure or slurry you store
• a change to your site’s design or ventilation that could lead to higher ammonia concentrations
• a change to your site’s design or ventilation that could lead to ammonia settling on a nearby receptor, such as residential housing or a protected conservation site

Activities that release ammonia into water

You generally cannot get a permit for activities that result in releasing ammonia into water.

Biomass boilers

You need to assess the environmental impact of nitrogen dioxide and particulate emissions if you:

• add a biomass boiler to an existing permitted site
• propose a biomass boiler in plans for a new site

Contact the Environment Agency and ask to speak to your local officer to discuss how to do the assessment.

Poultry farms: when you do not need to do an air emissions assessment for your biomass boiler

You do not need to do an assessment of air emissions if:

• the fuel comes from virgin timber (whole trees and woody parts of trees), clean non-virgin timber (any timber or timber product that has not been treated), straw or miscanthus (also called elephant grass)
• the biomass boiler appliance and its installation arecomplies eligiblewith forstandards equivalent to the now closed Renewable Heat Incentive scheme

In addition, the aggregate boiler net rated thermal input must be less than 0.5MWth (megawatt thermal), or it must meet all of the following:

• the aggregate boiler net rated thermal input is less than or equal to 4MWth
• no individual boiler has a net thermal input greater than 1MWth
• the stack height is at least 5 metres above the ground and may need to be higher if there are buildings within 25 metres – the stack must extend above the roof level of any building by at least 1 metre
• there are no receptors within 50 metres of the emission points

If your proposed biomass boiler installation does not meet this criteria, then use the following criteria for pig farms. You will not need to do an air emissions assessment if it meets the pig farm criteria.

Pig farms: when you do not need to do an air emissions assessment for your biomass boiler

You do not need to do an assessment of air emissions if:

• the fuel comes from virgin timber (whole trees and woody parts of trees), clean non-virgin timber (any timber or timber product that has not been treated), straw or miscanthus (also called elephant grass)
• the biomass boiler appliance and its installation arecomplies eligiblewith forstandards equivalent to the now closed Renewable Heat Incentive scheme

In addition, the aggregate boiler net rated thermal input must be less than 0.5MWth, or it must meet all of the following:

• the aggregate boiler net rated thermal input is less than 1MWth
• the stack height is greater than 1 metre above the roof level of buildings within 25 metres (where there are no buildings within 25 metres, the stack height must be a minimum of 3 metres above ground)
• there are no SPAs, SACs, Ramsar sites or SSSIs within 500 metres of the emission points
• there are no National Nature Reserves, Local Nature Reserves, Local Wildlife Sites or Ancient Woodlands within 100 metres of the emission points

Where the aggregate boiler net rated thermal input is greater than 1MWth but less than 2MWth, you do not need to do an assessment of air emissions if, in addition to meeting all of the above criteria (including fuel type and eligibilitycompliance forwith the now closed Renewable Heat Incentive),Incentive scheme), there are no receptors within 150 metres of the emission points.

Net rated thermal input definition

Net rated thermal input means the rate at which fuel can be burned at the maximum continuous rating of the appliance, multiplied by the net calorific value of the fuel. It’s expressed in MWth. Ask the manufacturer of the biomass boiler for this information.

Dust and bioaerosols

You will need to produce and submit a dust and bioaerosol management plan with your application if there are relevant receptors within 100 metres of your farm, such as the farmhouse or farm worker’s houses.

In your dust and bioaerosol management plan, you must give details of control measures you will use to manage the risks from dust and bioaerosols from your farm. Tables 1 and 2 and checklist 1 and 2 in ‘assessing dust control measures on intensive poultry installations’ explain the methods you should use.

The format of your dust and bioaerosol management plan should be similar to your odour and noise management plan.

Submit your application

Submit your application within 6 months of your ammonia screening assessment to make sure the data remains current.

If your application requires detailed modelling, you must:

• show that your emissions are at the acceptable levels in the screening thresholds table
• provide plans to show how you will reduce them if they’re not

If you’re unable to propose ways to reduce your emissions below these levels, the Environment Agency will do a detailed assessment of your proposal. For SPAs, SACs, Ramsar sites and SSSIs the Environment Agency willmay consult with Natural England before they decide whether to approve your permit.

ContactFor help and advice

Contact the Environment Agency if you have queries.