Under the Environmental Protection Act, an environmental permit will be required for activities that involve the risk of environmental pollution. A permit is required if the activities can pollute land areas, streams, springs, rills or other waterways.
An environmental permit must also be obtained for water management projects that may cause environmental pollution but that do not require a permit under the Water Act. You are required to apply for an environmental permit if you expand your operations, begin to produce emissions or intend to make any other significant changes to your operations.
An environmental permit is required for such activities as forestry, metal and chemical industries, energy production, animal shelters, professional waste management, waste management in plants mining, fur farming, fish farming and port and airport operations. You must also apply for an environmental permit if the activities can cause unreasonable stress to nearby residents.
If other environment-related permits are required for the applicant’s project in addition to the environmental permit, the applicant may request coordination of the permit procedures from the permit authority. The processing stages of the different permit procedures will then be synchronised. Coordination will ensure that the timing of the different phases of the permit procedures will be harmonised.