Integrated pollution prevention and control in the surface treatment industries in Galicia (NW Spain)

The so-called IPPC Directive concerning integrated pollution prevention and control came into force 10 years ago affecting those industrial installations enumerated in its annex I, mainly characterized for being highly polluting sources. One of the innovations of this regulation is that the installations must have an integrated environmental permit granted by the competent authority of the region in which they are located. This environmental permit should include, among others, the Emission Limit Values (ELV) for the more relevant and potential pollutants which cannot be overcome, taking into account the Best Available Techniques (BAT). In Spain this Directive was transposed by the Law 16/2002 on July 2002. This paper shows the application of this law to the surface treatment sector using electrolytic or chemical procedures, encompassed as epigraph 2.6 in its annex I, in Galicia (NW Spain). An overview of the sector is made by analyzing the productive operations applied and their environmental aspects to consider the options to prevent and/or reduce the potential pollution. To assist this task a simple method to determine whether a technique can be considered or not as BAT is offered. Finally, a support guide to apply for the environmental permit was exclusively elaborated for this sector.