DNumber of enterprises inspected in relation to the total number of listed enterprises
13.2.1. The Municipalities:
The Municipalities’ total manpower expenditure on the environmental front corresponds to approx. 900 man-years. Of this approx. 450 man-years are used on the issuance of authorizations, planning and other activities that typically take place in the office. The remaining 450 man-years are used on supervisory tasks, including the supervision of industrial enterprises (250 man-years), agricultural businesses (50 man-years) and other municipal supervisory responsibilities (150 man-years).
In order to be able to undertake supervision the Municipality has to have a register of the enterprises for which it has responsibility. Such registers were drawn up by all Municipalities between 1987 and 1990. According to the registers, the Municipalities are responsible for a total of just over 20,000 industrial enterprises and just under 60,000 agricultural businesses that are of relevance from the point of view of environmental administration.
The total number of supervisory site visits to enterprises is approx. 35,000 per year. This corresponds on average to the Municipalities undertaking a supervisory visit of each enterprise every third year. In addition, supervisory visits are undertaken in response to complaints from neighbours, cases concerning drinking water wells, etc.
The total figures hide considerable variation from Municipality to Municipality. Some of the variation is due to differences in the structure of different municipalities. For example, there is considerable difference between a suburb of Copenhagen, which is dominated by houses in a relatively small area, and a municipality in a growth area of mid Jutland with numerous industrial workplaces and large agricultural areas with large numbers of farm animals. Part of the variation is also due to political attitude to the environment and to the enterprises in the municipality. In some Municipalities the environmental administration is very zealous, and in others it tries hard to avoid bothering the enterprises.
In relation to the expectations of the State, a satisfactory environmental administration is probably found in 90% of Denmark’s 275 municipalities. However, there is a group of more backward municipalities that the State is trying to bring up to a higher standard through heavy-handed criticism.
The working style in the majority of Municipalities is to present themselves to the enterprises as consultants or providers of a service. This works in relation to most enterprises. However, when the enterprises are difficult, it is made clear that the municipal official is a person of authority with the whole of the public regulatory apparatus behind him.
The majority of municipal environmental administrations are very small - the number of staff can be counted on one hand. However, they are supported by an informal professional network that has developed. The managers and staff are usually members of professional associations, and they have personal contacts in other Municipalities from whom they can seek advice. Moreover, it is daily practice that if a staff member is faced with a difficult question, he telephones to the Danish EPA to seek good advice. The majority of the staff participate in further education activities, primarily at the Municipal College of Further Education.
13.2.2. The Counties:
The total manpower expenditure on environmental matters by the Counties is probably about 1,000 man-years. The main activities are environmental planning, authorization, protection of the groundwater and waste depositories (approx. 150 man-years), recipient supervision (approx. 150 man-years) and enterprise supervision (approx. 150 man- years).
DNumber of enterprises inspected in relation to the total number of listed enterprises
Recipient supervision covers the Counties’ activities to monitor the quality of the environment. The main emphasis in Denmark is placed on the aquatic environment: surface waters (watercourses, lakes and coastal marine waters) and the groundwater resource. Only a few man-years are expended on monitoring air quality. In addition to the work done by the Counties themselves, a further DKK 90 million is expended on analyses undertaken as part of the recipient supervision activities. This corresponds to approx. 300 man-years. The majority of these analyses are contracted to the municipal laboratories (EFCUs), and the remainder to private laboratories.
Enterprise supervision comprises approx. 2,500 industrial enterprises, approx. 400 landfills, approx. 500 fish farms and approx. 500 municipal enterprises. The number of supervisory site visits undertaken over the course of a year is approx. 2,300, the Counties thus visiting the enterprises for which they are responsible on average once every 2 years. The Counties also supervise 1,500 municipal sewage treatment plants, to which approx. 4,000 supervisory site visits are made each year.
There is no great difference between the environmental endeavours of the different Counties. They have chosen to work to roughly the same standard. All Counties have large highly specialized environmental departments (50- 100 man-years), the only exception being the small county of Bornholm (45,000 inhabitants), where the department is correspondingly smaller.
The county environmental authorities also try to project themselves to the enterprises as consultants/providers of a service. In practice, however, they are to a greater extent considered as figures of authority ("police officers"), and relations are therefore more formal than between the Municipalities and the enterprises.
13.2.3. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency:
The manpower expenditure of the Danish EPA is approx. 300-350 man-years. Of this approx. 5 man-years are devoted to the chemical substances inspectorate (legislation in this area is not decentralized) and approx. 3 man-years to the supervision of enterprises that for some reason or other have been temporarily placed under direct environmental administration of the Danish EPA.
The Danish EPA to a certain extent keeps track of the local supervisory activities. This primarily consists of preparing an annual report, based on the data submitted by the Counties and Municipalities, that summarizes their activities in map form. The Danish EPA also processes complaints concerning county and municipal supervisory activities. In response to the initiative of the local environmental staff members, the Danish EPA also expends considerable resources on providing advice by telephone. This advisory service, together with courses given at the Municipal College of Further Education where the Agency’s staff members serve as instructors, accords the Agency considerable professional impact. On the other hand, the Danish EPA does not have the right to inspect the work of the local environmental authorities.
The Danish EPA does not have the power of instruction over local authorities with respect to specific cases. However, the latter are bound to follow the binding regulations that are stipulated in Acts and Statutory Orders. The Agency can also direct them to examine a specific case and come to a decision.
13.2.4. Special powers:
The Environmental Protection Act bestows some special powers on the environmental authorities that are of significance for their supervisory activities.
The most important of these is that environmental authorities have universal right of access to exercise their powers. If they are refused entry they may - if necessary under police protection - force entry with the aid of a locksmith or other appropriate means. A court order is not required.
Routinely, however, the supervisory visits take place less dramatically. Some are announced in advance because the authorities wish to meet specific persons at the enterprise. Others are undertaken unannounced because the authorities wish to make a spot check of whether environmental requirements are complied with under routine conditions. It is up to the environmental authority whether the visit should be undertaken announced or unannounced.
Another important point is that the environmental authority has the right to demand information on pollution caused by the enterprise. The environmental authority can always demand the information that the enterprise already has on hand concerning pollution. This applies irrespective of whether the information is to be used to solve a specific problem or in the outlining of a more general problem.
The environmental authority can also request the enterprise, at its own
expense, to undertake analyses of its routine pollutant discharges. However, a sense of
proportion has to be maintained between analysis costs and the environmental problem
caused by the pollution in question. Such requests are subject to the rules governing
injunctions. Thus there has to be room for contradiction so that the enterprise can put
forward its point of view. The injunction can be appealed to the Danish EPA.
