Installations according to the Hazardous Incident Ordinance
Installations in which hazardous substances above a certain quantity are present or may arise in the event of an incident fall under the scope of the Major Accidents Ordinance.
Hazardous incident facilities must be monitored regularly. A monitoring plan is in place to ensure that the installations in the city of Jena that fall under the scope of the Major Accidents Ordinance are monitored in a planned and comprehensible manner.
Major Accidents Ordinance
The Hazardous Incident Ordinance (12th BImSchV) is the central regulation for the technical safety of industrial plants in which large quantities of hazardous substances are handled. It specifies precautionary and emergency response requirements for operators and authorities.
The ordinance serves to transpose Directive 2012/18/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, amending and subsequently repealing Council Directive 96/82/EC (Seveso III Directive) into German law. This directive was transposed into German law with:
- Amendment of the Federal Immission Control Act of 30.11.2016 (Federal Law Gazette I No. 57, p. 2749)
- Amendment to the Major Accidents Ordinance of 09.01.2017 (Federal Law Gazette I No. 3, p. 47); in force since 14.01.2017
The application of the Major Accidents Ordinance is exclusively dependent on the presence of certain quantities of hazardous substances. In Annex I, it contains specific quantity thresholds for named substances such as chlorine or propylene oxide as well as for certain hazard categories.
According to Section 2 (1) of the Thuringian Ordinance on the Regulation of Responsibilities and the Transfer of Authorizations in the Fields of Immission Control and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading, the City of Jena is the competent monitoring authority for installations requiring approval under the Federal Immission Control Act and those not requiring approval. In particular, it is responsible for carrying out monitoring in accordance with §§ 52, 52a BImSchG and §§ 16 and 17 of the Hazardous Incident Ordinance (12th BImSchV).
Monitoring of operating areas
Establishments subject to the Major Accidents Ordinance must be monitored by the competent authorities in accordance with Article 16 "Monitoring system" and Article 17 "Monitoring plan and monitoring program" of the Major Accidents Ordinance.
Monitoring includes on-site inspections of the operating areas at regular intervals by the monitoring authority. During these inspections, the supervisory authority reviews the technical, organizational and management measures that an operator has taken to prevent major accidents or to minimize their effects.