Crisis and Recovery Act extra knife on the throat of livestock farming

With a new part of the Crisis & Recovery Act, regional authorities that grant and enforce the environmental permit have a means at their disposal to reduce odor, particulate matter and ammonia emissions from livestock farms.

That is what lawyer Franca Damen reports on her website† In the provinces of Gelderland, Noord-Brabant and Limburg, there will be so-called experimental space for 'overloaded situations' in livestock farming.

Adjustment permits
The competent authority can, by way of experiment, impose measures to limit the overload to the environment in terms of odor, particulate matter and ammonia. Internal netting, as described in the Low-Emission Housing Decree, can also be limited. The proposed legislative text also provides for the option of adjusting the policy on permit granting and permit withdrawal, with a view to overloading the environment by livestock farms.

View LTO/POV
The 7st tranche of the legislative proposal was published on 21 February, after which opinions could be submitted for 4 weeks. (Publication Government Gazette) LTO and POV have done this jointly. They published their position at the beginning of March, but due to the nitrogen problem and the corona crisis, it has received little attention until now. The interest groups are still awaiting a response from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.

They fear that the new decision - which has not yet entered into force - will leave them too much at the mercy of local politicians. The new decision may lead to arbitrary rules, whether or not substantiated. This is a major concern for both interest groups.

However, the new regulations also offer scope for pilots to accelerate innovations. Now innovations regularly fail due to regulations, such as tackling ammonia at the source with real-time measurements. That is appreciated by both.

Don't experiment until 2031
POV and LTO are surprised that the experiment will run until 2031. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management thus gives the impression that this is a regular adjustment of the regulations. “An experiment can take at most two to three years. After that, the experiment must be evaluated and possibly included in regular legislation."

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