COOPERATION AGREEMENT IN THE FIELD OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

The cooperation agreement for large tank farms is an agreement between the oil industry, represented by Avenergy Suisse and CARBURA, and the affiliated cantons and tank farms. With this agreement, the cantons delegate the controls of environmental protection legislation to the industry, which in turn commissions ECO SWISS as an independent body to carry out enforcement controls in the areas of accident prevention, water protection and air pollution control in the tank farms.

The aim is a nationwide and uniform implementation of environmental and water protection legislation throughout Switzerland, the promotion of personal responsibility on the part of tank farm operators, systematic monitoring of structural changes in the storage facilities and the surrounding area, and the use and preservation of specialist know-how. Sovereign tasks are reserved for the cantonal authorities.

The cooperation agreement has existed since 2006 and, as of January 1, 2024, includes twelve cantons and 40 large tank farms. This correspondce to more than two thirds of all Swiss tank cubatures.

ORGANIZATION AND IMPLEMENTATION

The cooperation agreement is managed by a core steering team consisting of one representative each from the participating cantons, one representative each from Avenergy Suisse and CARBURA, and two representatives from fuel stations. The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and the commissioned department at ECO SWISS are non-voting members.

There are three specialist committees (water protection, air pollution control and accident prevention) with repre-sentatives of the participating cantons, the industry and the ECO SWISS specialist department to provide technical support for the cooperation agreement.

The assessment of a tank farm in the areas of water protection, air pollution control and accident prevention is based on an initial inspection by the specialist department and then a continuous, systematic review using annual control questions and repeat inspections in the warehouses every 5 - 7 years. The evaluation of the annual control questions, any demands from the tank farm inspections and any consequences of an extraordinary event are summarized in a catalog of measures for each individual tank farm. The ECO SWISS specialist department continuously monitors the outstanding measures and specified deadlines to monitor their success.

The specialist department reports annually to the cantons on the current status of the individual tank systems. The authorities, for their part, take on the controlling of the agreement, carry out spot checks and create an audit report.

More information / documents

CARBURA (just german or french)

Avenergy Suisse (just german or french)