Implementation of an environmental impact monitoring programme in the vicinity of waste incineration and co-incineration plants

Summary

Since the 1970s, growing interest in incineration issues on the part of the scientific community and the general public has led to the emergence and highlighting of a number of problems with the process and the potential associated risks. Incineration sites are monitored to ensure that they are operating properly, by tracking a number of parameters measured at emission. The ministerial decree of 20 September 2002 introduces a new measure, namely the introduction of an environmental monitoring programme in the vicinity of the sites. This measure supplements existing monitoring by extending the monitoring of sites in the vicinity of installations to potential receiving environments. No further details are provided on the possible methods for carrying out this monitoring. Operators, who are faced with relatively short deadlines for setting up their monitoring programmes (the date of application of the Order being 28 December 2005), must nevertheless make the optimum choice, i.e. choose a method that is suited to the needs of their facilities and meets the regulatory requirements of this new type of monitoring. The aim of this study is to make it easier for operators to choose a method by providing as exhaustive an overview as possible of the various monitoring techniques available. The operator should systematically evaluate the methods and assess their suitability for the local parameters specific to each site. The purpose of this document is to provide a basis on which to carry out this assessment.