Classified facilities for the protection of the environment - Declaration file

Anyone owning or operating a plant, whether industrial or not, must check its administrative status with regard to regulations governing facilities classified for environmental protection (ICPE) before starting up. The French Environment Code, which came into force with Law 76-663 of July 19, 1976 on facilities classified for environmental protection, and its implementing decree 77-1133 of September 21, 1977, governs the operation of "factories, workshops, warehouses, construction sites and, in general, facilities operated or owned by any natural or legal person, public or private, which may present dangers or inconveniences either for the convenience of the neighborhood, or for public health, safety or hygiene, or for agriculture, or for the protection of nature, the environment and landscapes, or for the rational use of energy, or for the conservation of sites and monuments as well as elements of archaeological heritage".

A nomenclature of classified facilities established by decree of the Conseil d'Etat (see [G 1 016] ) lists, under several headings, the various activities and substances which, depending on the seriousness of the hazards and inconveniences that their operation may present, may be subject to three specific administrative regimes: authorization, registration or declaration. There are four possible cases:

• no plant owned or operated is subject to the regulations governing classified installations; the operator must ensure that he is not subject to other specific regulations (such as the law on water) before starting up his plant;

• at least one of the facilities is subject to the authorization system; the individual or legal entity owning the facility must then submit an operating permit application (see [G 1 018] );

• at least one of the facilities is subject to registration: it must then submit a registration file (see