Implementation of the Hazardous Incident Ordinance: LAI guideline for the preparation of expert opinions on the determination of appropriate safety distances

Expert opinions on the determination of appropriate safety distances are important bases for the decisions taken by licensing and planning authorities. According to current jurisdiction the determination of appropriate safety distances is subject to judicial review. In the LAI guideline of June 2018, requirements on the structure, scope and level of detail of the respective expert opinions are formulated to guarantee that the expert reports on the determination of appropriate safety distances are comprehensible in themselves and include all required information. The informational content has to be high enough to make it clearly comprehensible why the substances and cases considered have been selected for the determination of appropriate safety distances. If certain information includes business secrets, these have to be marked as such so that this can be taken into account in case of publication or further distribution of the document. In November 2018, among others the Bavarian State Ministry for Environment and Consumer Protection distributed the guideline to its lower authorities and asked to inform the local authorities accordingly.

Also for your project, our registered experts in the field of plant safety according to section 29 b of the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG) can prepare expert opinions on the determination of appropriate safety distances taking into account the LAI guideline. Please contact us.