Changing a valid environmental or water permit

Please contact an ELY Centre or municipal environmental protection authority first. The supervisory authority has necessary information concerning, for example, the permit status. On account of a contact, the supervisory authority can take measures to monitor common good or legality in operations. Check your right to make initiations or proposals.

Prepare and submit an application or proposal electronically to the Regional State Administrative Agency. To ensure immediate initiation, the application or proposal should be submitted separately, not in conjunction to a reminder, for example.

In order to amend a permit, an application or proposal is required from the party that, under legislation, is entitled to make amendments.

Primarily, the permit holder has a right to apply for a change to a valid permit. The supervisory authorities have extensive rights to initiate applications. In some cases, the municipality that is affected by the project or operations can also apply for a change. Otherwise, the right to initiate is solved specific to each case, based on the party status and the rules of the association or foundation. Additionally, there are regulations to protect the rights of the Sami people.

Parties involved refers to all parties whose right, benefit or duty may be affected by the matter – such as the party suffering damage. The association or foundation must be registered, and its purpose must be to promote the protection of environment, health or nature or habitability of a residential environment and in the operating area of which, in accordance with its rules, the environmental effects in question appear. The permit authority can withhold from processing a matter, if the customer has no legal right of initiation.

The proposal or application should specify what kind of changes should be made to the permit and why. To prompt the procedure, it is recommended that the information concerning the application is presented as comprehensively and in detail as possible, already during the initiation stage.

The conditions and criteria are listed in sections 88–94 of the Environmental Protection Act and chapter 3, sections 21–24 and chapter 19, sections 5–16 of the Water Act.

The permit authority may also choose to amend a valid permit in certain exceptional circumstances (such as to lapse an environmental permit and clarify a decision concerning a water permit).