A copy of the Certificate of Testing / Installation must be kept available for inspection at the relevant service station.
Petroleum Vapour Emissions Regulations
If you are a Petrol Station owner/operator you are obliged to ensure that your facility is designed and operated in accordance with the following regulations:
Air Pollution Act, 1987 (Petroleum Vapour Emissions) Regulations, 1997
The objective of these regulations is to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere from vehicle re-fuelling activities at service stations, in order to reduce the adverse impact of VOCs on human health and the environment.
Petrol contains VOCs, carbon-based chemicals that evaporate readily into the atmosphere. Once emitted to air, VOCs are associated with several health and environmental problems.
- Formation of ground-level ozone and photochemical smog
- Poor local air quality (benzene in air)
- Atmospheric warming and climate change.
Under these regulations all petrol service stations must have installed a Stage 1 Petrol Vapour Recovery system in place.
The Regulations also provide that new service stations which meet either of the following two criteria will be required to be equipped with Stage II Petrol Vapour Recovery (PVRII) systems to recover Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) during refuelling of vehicles:
- throughput >100m3 (or 100,000 litres) and situated under living or working quarters
- throughput >500m3 (or 500,000 litres)
The Regulations also provide that existing service stations are required to install PVRII systems when undergoing their next major refurbishment after 1 January, 2012 if they meet either of the following two criteria:
- throughput >100m3 (or 100,000 litres) and situated under living or working quarters
- throughput >500m3 (or 500,000 litres)
In addition, the Directive requires that service stations with a throughput >3,000m3 (or 3,000,000 litres) will be required to install PVRII technology by 31 December, 2018 at the latest (or sooner if undergoing a major refurbishment before that date).
To meet the requirements of the regulations a Service Station owner/operator is obliged to appoint an approved assessor who will carry out tests on their petrol station and submit a report and application fee (€63.50) to Laois County Council. If the Council is satisfied with the report it will issue a certificate of compliance with the above act. Certificates of compliance last a maximum of three years, and need renewal on expiry. A copy certificate of compliance must be kept available for inspection at the relevant service station.
Assessors approved for this purpose in Laois are:
- Keohane Consulting Engineers, Stoneview, Blarney, Co Cork.
- Micheal O’Kane & Associates, Glansha Beg, 27a Gilford Parek, Sandymount, Dublin 4.
- JA Gorman,Consulting Engineers, Unit 1, Block B, Forest Park, Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
- Forecourt Services Irl, Inniskeen, Dundalk, Co. Louth.
- Conor Daly, Petrocourt, Gurteen, Ballina, Co. Mayo.
- Brian McGloughlin, Health Safety & Fire Compliance, 23 Strand Street, Skerries, Co. Dublin.
Any enquiries can be made directly to the Environment Section by:
E-mail: environmentadmin@laoiscoco.ie