General Notification under the Environmental Protection Act

If your business activities have only minor environmental impacts, you can submit a general notification in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act (ympäristönsuojelulaki) instead of applying for an environmental permit. Notifications can be submitted for sawmills, bus or lorry depots, zoos, amusement parks, chemical stores, outdoor shooting ranges, animal shelters, and certain food and feed industry activities.

However, environmental permits are required for animal shelters of directive-related size, large cattle farms, fish processing plants, and margarine factories. Notifications are submitted to the municipal environmental protection authority or, for larger chemical stores, to the Permit and Supervision Authority (LVV).

Requirements

  • Location: Activities must not be located on important or other groundwater areas suitable for water supply.
  • Neighborhood: Activities must not cause unreasonable burden to the neighborhood.
  • Water bodies: Activities must not cause water pollution or be subject to licensing under the Water Act (vesilaki).
  • Directive installations: Activities must not be part of a directive installation's operations.
  • EIA procedure: Environmental impact assessment procedure must not apply to the activities.

Procedure

  • Submitting notification: Submit the notification using the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) form to the municipal environmental protection authority or, for larger chemical stores, to the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency.
  • Information required: Information corresponds approximately to that required in an environmental permit application.
  • Starting operations: If you do not receive a decision within the deadline, you may start operations at your own risk, but must comply with any later decision.