**Labour Inspectorate, region Southwest

***Rotterdam Fire Brigade

Implementing Seveso II in The Netherlands - Operational Experiences in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond Region

Abstract

Under the Dutch implementation of the 1982 Seveso Directive, reporting obligations for com-panies consisted of the submission of two reports: an External Safety Report and an Occupa-tional Safety Report. In connection with other legislation, there was an additional reporting obligation associated with investigating the necessity of having a company fire brigade. These reports were evaluated separately by three different regulatory bodies. For upper-tier establishments, the implementation of the Seveso II Directive in the Netherlands is characterized by the integration of the above-mentioned three reporting obliga-tions into one report: the Safety Report. Evaluating a Safety Report will thus be a joint activity between the three regulatory bodies involved, and this will also be the case in carrying out the required inspections at upper-tier as well as lower-tier establish-ments. For the Rijnmond region, located in the vicinity of Rotterdam, these joint activ-ities are an issue of major importance. Many chemical and petrochemical plants, power plants, and storage and transshipment companies are located in this area, and among these there are a substantial number of Seveso sites. As a consequence, organizing the required cooperation is a significant task in itself. This paper discusses operational experiences between the key regulatory bodies in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond region: DCMR Environmental Protection Agency, region Southwest of the Labour Inspectorate, and Rotterdam Fire Brigade. Section 1 intro-duces the historical background from which the three bodies enter the required cooper-ation, by briefly describing the three pre-Seveso II reporting obligations. It also charac-terizes the Dutch implementation of Seveso II, and introduces the Rotterdam-Rijnmond region. Next, Section 2 deals with earlier joint experiences between the three bodies, which consisted mainly of carrying out inspections together on a voluntary basis and participating jointly in Seveso II pilot projects. Current activities between the three bodies are discussed in Section 3. These are concentrated around setting up an organisational structure for implementing Seveso II in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond region, and elaborating the necessary pro-cedures. Section 4 presents some concluding remarks.

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