The Amended Water Environment Regulations concerned controlled activities in Scotland were laid on 11th November and can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2021/412/contents/made
Most of the provisions come into force on 1st January 2022. In summary, a few of the requirements that are relevant to the organics sector include:
- Digestate needs to be spread by precision spreading equipment from Jan 2023
- Conditions regarding the storage of liquid digestate when not under waste regulatory controls
- must be stored in a liquid digestate storage system, slurry storage system or slurry bag – base and walls must be impermeable, protected against corrosion, capable of withstanding loads, not situated within 10m of any surface water, operationally maintained, drainage pipes with two lockable values.
- Liquid digestate storage systems and slurry bags which were constructed or which were granted planning permission before 1 January 2022 have until 1 January 2024 to comply.
- Require risk assessments to be carried out where organic fertilisers are to be applied to land, including the preparation of a map identifying areas of high risk where field heaps must not be located.
Please contact REA Head of Organics and Natural Capital, Jenny Grant, with any questions.