1.6    Environmental Pollution Monitoring and Control

1.6.1 Pollution Prevention: Methods and Tools

In Germany, routine measurements are made in the environmental areas of air, noise and water. These measurements are to ensure that the quality of such media is checked as well as to evaluate any measures necessary in order to insure safety or improve quality. The legal basis for measurements intended to monitor environmental air quality is the “Federal Immission Control Act” (Bundes-Immissionsgesetz, BImSchG [1]). It contains the requirements for the installation and operation of facilities which might potentially do damage to the environment. Legal and administrative regulations make these requirements more concrete.

In order to ensure that these regulations have been abided by, the BImSchG gives the governmental authorities the possibility to order either discontinuous emission monitoring at regular intervals or if mass flows are large by means of continuous measurements. Emission monitoring is part of the catalogue of measures provided for in the Federal Immission Control Act [1]. §7 BImSchG empowers the German Federal Government to take legal measures to require that the operation and self-monitoring of facilities which require governmental approval fulfil specific standards.

A Europe-wide requirement for emission monitoring exists at present:

• for large-scale incineration plants 2001/80/EG [16]
• for the incineration of household waste 2000/76/EG [17]
• for certain activities and facilities using organic solvents (VOC-Guidelines) 1999/13/EG

European guidelines are to be made a valid part of national law within set time limits. In part, national legislation already includes the EC requirements. Where this is not the case, laws will be revised or new laws initiated (e. g. the revised version of the 17th BImSchV of 14 August 2003).

Concerning land pollution a central monitoring instrument developed in recent years is the nationwide network of long-term soil monitoring sites designated by the Länder and covering a representative cross-section of landscape types, soils, land use profiles and pollution loads. At these sites, soil quality is documented in a comprehensive programme of soil chemistry, soil physics and soil biology studies. Climate data, substance inputs and outputs, and changes in site biocoenosis are measured continuously to assess substance flows. These data are used both to record current soil quality and to predict future changes.

Differing measurement methods used to investigate the same object of measurement do not always produce comparable results. To be more precise: The object of measurement is only finally defined by the choice of the measurement method. Therefore it is imperative to standardize measurement and analysis methods in order to make measurement results comparable when differing methods have been used at different sites. Before their publication, the [DIN and VDI] regulations were first subjected to the most thorough testing. These testing procedures included determining the statistical characteristic value and the potential sites where such procedures would be used as well as any limitations they might have. Standardized measurement methods are therefore an efficient tool for determining emissions.

1.6.2 Legal Aspects of Enivironmental Pollution Control Practises

On the basis of the reform of federalism, in 2006 the German government put the project of compiling a comprehensive Environmental Code originally launched three decades ago back on the agenda. The reorganisation of legislative competencies makes it basically possible to achieve an enforceable nationwide "all-round codification" of all important matters covered by environmental law. Now the Federal Government had retained the competence to enact framework legislation in important environmental matters: legislation is subject to so-called „concurrent legislation“.

The reform of federalism intends to improve and strengthen the implementation of European law in Germany. Whether the reorganization of competencies between the Federal Government and the States will ultimately lead to better and quicker implementation of European law remains to be seen. In any case, the reform has paved the way for establishing a unified Environmental Code (UGB), comprising the following sections:

• General objectives and principles of environmental law,
• cross-sectorial environmental subject matters,
• project-related environmental law (integrated project licensing, intervention measures and monitoring, environmental protection in enterprises, environmental management systems),
• water management,
• nature conservation.

Irrespective of the cross-sector orientated Environmental Code a lot of sector legal regulations for the different environmental matters in Germany is in force. In the following, we will point out as an example the existing regulations for controlling soil pollution respective soil quality. A major problem in assessing soil quality is that the available data are gathered at different administrative levels. These data have to be made compatible and processed, fed into soil information systems and interpreted. Soil protection is a complex, interdisciplinary field, and national soil protection law needs to be better dovetailed with other relevant areas of law so that visible progress can be made by integrating soil protection aspects into other sector legislation.

The precedential areas of sector legislation include:

• Certain provisions of the Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act (Kreislaufwirtschafts und Abfallgesetz).
• Provisions on the carriage of hazardous goods
• Fertilizer and plant protection law
• The Genetic Engineering Act (Gentechnikgesetz)
• The Federal Forest Act (Bundeswaldgesetz) and Länder forest law
• Land consolidation law
• Construction, modification, maintenance and operation of transport routes and provisions governing traffic and transport
• Construction planning law and building regulations
• Federal mining law
• Federal pollution law

The Federal Soil Protection and Contaminated Sites Ordinance (Bundes-Bodenschutz- und Altlastverordnung or BBodSchV) is the main statutory instrument for enforcement of soil protection law in Germany. The Federal Soil Protection and Contaminated Sites Ordinance make use of several powers conferred under the Federal Soil Protection Act: The Federal Soil Protection and Contaminated Sites Ordinance (Bundes-Bodenschutz- und Altlastverordnung or BBodSchV) is the main statutory instrument for enforcement of soil protection law in Germany. The Federal Soil Protection and Contaminated Sites Ordinance make use of several powers conferred under the Federal Soil Protection Act:

• The Ordinance covers the investigation and evaluation of suspect sites, contaminated sites and soil degradation, and lays down requirements for sampling, analysis and quality assurance.
• It lays down requirements for hazard prevention by means of decontamination, containment, protection and restriction measures, and supplementary requirements on remediation investigations and remediation plans for certain sites.
• It contains requirements for the prevention of soil degradation.
• It contains requirements for the prevention of soil degradation.
• Finally, it specifies trigger values, action values, precautionary values and permissible aditional pollution loads.

A standstill or even weakening of existing framework legislation should be prevented at all circumstances. Rather, the core preconditions for effective nature conservation must be guaranteed by law. These include in particular

• Regulation of interventions including changes in land use that are relevant for greenhouse gas emissions, with consistent preference given to compensation in real terms rather than monetary compensation
• Landscape planning by retaining compulsory planning procedures at all levels of political decision-making
• Ensuring the development and further extension of the system of protected areas
• Improving the interfaces between nature conservation, soil protection and water law by making it compulsory to develop multifunctional measures and to coordinate the use of instruments in sector legislation
• Further developing the regulation of good practices to reduce the environmental damage caused by agriculture, which is to a great extent relevant for climateprotection
• Monitoring environmental status by establishing an effective database to provideinformation on the status of the ecological balance and biodiversity, and the effectiveness with which they operate.

1.6.3 International Agreements

Helping to shape the framework for global environmental protection and resource conservation is an important part of German development policy. German experts work actively with players from other countries on the elaboration of international agreements. For instance, they made key contributions to the drafting of the Statement of Forest Principles, the Kyoto Protocol, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and many other international agreements. As a part of its contribution to fostering renewable energies, Germany hosted the international Renewables 2004 conference in Bonn, at which an International Action Programme was adopted.

All of these agreements have a common purpose: to protect the environment and make sustainable use of natural resources. One aspect is that resource consumption must be curbed worldwide, especially in the industrialised countries. Yet this must not deprive poorer countries of the basis for their further development. This is why Germany cooperates closely with the other industrialised nations as well as with the developing countries in efforts to implement environmental and resource conservation measures.