PRTR in Macedonia

Introduction

Republic of Macedonia signed the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers – PRTR as part of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision – making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters at an extraordinary meeting of the parties within the fifth Pan – European Ministerial Conference 'Environment for Europe' held on 21-st May 2003. The same Protocol was ratified in 2010.

Macedonia as Party – signatory of the Protocol is obliged to establish and maintain publicly accessible database as a national Pollutant Release and Transfer Register. For that purpose, Republic of Macedonia represented by the Ministry of environment and physical planning as a competent authority for executing environmental policies on national level has started all necessary activities to fulfill the obligations derived from the Protocol.

One of the first activities carried out in the country was the preparation of the Rulebook on the form, content, methodology and manner of keeping the Register of release and transfer of pollutants in Republic of Macedonia (Official gazette of Republic of Macedonia No.2/11 published on 03.03.2011) in which are prescribed all obligations arising from the EU regulation (EC) No.166/2006 and the Protocol.

Besides the above-mentioned legislation, the implementation of the Protocol is closely related with conducting the obligations arising from the European directive 96/61/EC which is transposed into the national legislation by introducing the system for Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC).

Another step of utmost importance for successful fulfillment of the obligations from the Protocol was the establishment of the PRTR reporting system (PRTR - online) which enables electronic input, processing and presentation of data in aggregated and non-aggregated form providing public access through the PRTR web portal.

Contents of the register

The registry contains information on:

• Facility and its geographical location, including the river basin;
• Owner or operator of the facility responsible for data delivery;
• Industrial sector;
• Pollutant releases to each environmental media (air, water and soil);
• Off-site transfers of waste and their destination, as appropriate and
• Off-site transfers of pollutants in waste water;

Industrial sector

The register covers 65 activities grouped in 9 industrial sectors.

• Energy sector
• Production and processing of metals
• Mineral industry
• Chemical industry
• Waste and wastewater management
• Paper and wood production and processing
• Intensive livestock production and aquaculture
• Animal and vegetable products from the food and beverage sector
• Other activities

List of Pollutants

The list of pollutants is defined in Прилог 2 од of the Rulebook on the form, content, methodology and manner of maintaining the Register of release and transfer of pollutants in Republic of Macedonia (Official gazette of Republic of Macedonia No.2/11 published on 03.03.2011). It contains information about the names, total number of pollutants and threshold for releases that operators are obliged to report. More information about the pollutants can be found in the section Pollutants.

Sources of pollution

Point source pollution is stationed location or fixed facility from which pollutants are released, respectively a single source such as a tube, channel, mine, chimney etc. Diffuse source of pollution represents a number of small or scattered sources from which pollutants may be released into the air, water or soil and has a considerable impact for the environment.

Way of reporting

For reporting in line with the PRTR requirements, the industry will use PRTR - online, which represents a web application that is designed for reporting of data on pollutant releases into the environmental media and data on waste generation and waste transfer by the identified industrial entities.