My wastewater treatment plant is operating without the required environmental permits – how do I resolve this before the administrative authority discovers it?

Client

Company in the industrial sector

The situation

Operating an installation without the required environmental permits is one of the more serious compliance deficiencies we encounter in practice – and one that is most often discovered accidentally, during transactional due diligence, an authority inspection or an internal audit. An industrial company operated a wastewater treatment plant whose legal status required urgent regularisation: the installation was operating without the required environmental permits, including a water law permit and an environmental conditions decision. The client needed a solution that would resolve this problem without disrupting operational continuity.

Our role

At the initial stage we assessed the legal and technical situation of the installation – identifying the exact scope of the compliance deficiencies and recommending the optimal, business-safe solution. We then implemented those solutions in practice: conducted administrative proceedings to obtain the required environmental permits, including the water law permit and the environmental conditions decision. We worked closely with the technical adviser – the client received a single, integrated legal and technical response, rather than two separate advisory streams.

The result

A proactive approach to compliance provides the opportunity to negotiate the terms of regularisation and avoid sanctions that could not be avoided in the reactive mode of responding to an inspection.

Could your installation be operating without required permits, or do you have doubts about the completeness of your compliance? Better to check now than wait for an inspection.