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General notification under the Environmental Protection Act

  • Permit or other obligation
  • 2 municipalities
  • Public service

If your business activities have only minor environmental impacts, you can submit a general notification in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act instead of applying for an environmental permit.

You can submit a notification for

  • sawmills with a production capacity of at least 20,000 cubic metres of sawn timber per year
  • depots of over 50 busses or lorries, or working machinery depots of an equivalent size
  • permanent zoos and amusement parks
  • stores of hazardous liquid chemicals with a storage volume of at least 100 cubic metres but less than 1,000 cubic metres
  • outdoor shooting ranges that are meant for up to 10,000 shots per year and which have no shotgun shooting track
  • small to medium animal shelters
  • activities in the food and feed industry where wastewater is passed to a sewage treatment plant subject to an environmental permit.

However, you must apply for an environmental permit for

  • animal shelters of directive-related size
  • large cattle farms
  • plants handling or processing fish or fishery products
  • plants producing margarine or other fats or oils of plant or animal origin.

Submit a general notification to the Environmental Protection Service Unit, in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act.

Do the following

Submit the notification using the Finnish Environment Institute’s form. The information required is roughly the same as the information required in the environmental permit application.

If your notification concerns a larger chemical warehouse, submit the notification to the Regional State Administrative Agency.

If you do not receive a decision within the time limit, you can start your business operations at your own risk. However, you must comply with the decision that is issued later, even if you apply for an appeal.

To whom and on what terms

You can submit a notification if

  • your company is not located in important groundwater areas or other areas suitable for water supply
  • your company’s activities do not burden the neighbourhood unreasonably
  • your company’s activities do not pollute the water system, and the project is not subject to a permit under the Water Act
  • your company’s activities do not contaminate any streams, springs or rills by channelling wastewater
  • your company’s activities are not part of the activities of an installation covered by the directive
  • the environmental impact assessment procedure does not apply to your company’s activities.

If the entrepreneur has established itself in another country in the European Economic Area and temporarily offers services in Finland, the same permits are required as from entrepreneurs established in Finland.


Deadline

The notification must be submitted no later than 120 days before the start of the operations.

Period of validity

In principle, the decision is valid until further notice.

The service is provided by

City of Kotka

Responsible for the service

City of Kotka
Text edited by: City of Kotka
Updated: 30/12/2022