Best Available Techniques Not Entailing Excessive Costs

In the Environmental Protection Act 1990 Section 7 (2) (a) it states that “…in carrying on a prescribed process, the best available techniques not entailing excessive cost will be used—
(i) for preventing the release of substances prescribed for any environmental medium into that medium or, where that is not practicable by such means, for reducing the release of such substances to a minimum and for rendering harmless any such substances which are so released; and
(ii) for rendering harmless any other substances which might cause harm if released into any environmental medium; “.

The term BATNEEC first appears in the European Communities Directive 84/360/EEC of 1984 on the combating of air pollution from industrial plants, stating in Article 4 that “an authorization [for operation or alteration] may be issued only when the competent authority is satisfied that:
all appropriate preventive measures against air pollution have been taken, including the application of the best available technology, provided that the application of such measures does not entail excessive costs;”.

Article 8 states that to “.. the Commission, shall if necessary fix emission limit values based on the best available tech¬ology not entailing excessive costs, and taking into account the nature, quantities and harmfulness of the emissions concerned. ” The ‘T’ in this instance was technology, which has subsequently changed to techniques in the 1990 EPA.

BATNEEC tried to balance the affordability of the technology / techniques with environmental benefits, and was superseded by BAT in 1996, by EU Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control, being transposed into law by The Pollution Prevention and Control (England and Wales) Regulations 2000.