Risk analysis and safety policy developments in the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, external safety policy has been developed and implemented since the early eighties on the basis of a risk-based approach involving quantitative criteria for the tolerability of risk. Good experiences have been gained with the risk policy that applies to some 4000 establishments in the Netherlands where hazardous substances are present. On the basis of these experiences, legislation is now being prepared to give the risk tolerability criteria a full legal basis. This is aimed, in particular, to balance between risk control measures at the source through the licensing system, and spatial planning instruments to protect, e.g. residential areas against major hazards. The revision of the Seveso directive (96/82/EC) leads to the implementation of an integrated form of safety reporting, evaluation and inspection. Practical tools were developed for this implementation, e.g. for facilitating the selection of establishments and for assessing risks from major hazard establishments to surface water. In the past few years, the application of risk-based safety policy has been extended to other fields than establishments, e.g. for transport of hazardous chemicals and external safety of airports.

PROTEUS, a technical and management model for aquatic risk assessment of industrial spills.

The assessment of risks to the aquatic environment related to industrial installations is a priority in environmental pollution control in the Netherlands. Major accidents to the surface water such as the Sandoz incident, but also the high number of smaller accidents that occur every year has invoked the need for an effective method to assess these risks. Two different models have been used in this field in the Netherlands over several years. These two software applications, VERIS and RISAM were developed from two different perspectives: VERIS from the perspective of supplying major accidents related information in the safety report, RISAM form the perspective of controlling risks for both smaller and larger facilities that may pollute surface waters through accidents. Both systems comprised particular strong points: VERIS considers safety management aspects in the assessment, RISAM considers differences in surface water vulnerability and involves quantitative probabilities in the assessment. It was decided to integrate both methods and maintain these strong points in the resulting method. This paper describes the new integrated risk assessment method that now has been developed in a concerted effort between the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment, and the National Institute for Public Health and Environment. It also describes the essential elements of the computer program PROTEUS that is based on the new method and that makes the assessment of aquatic risks for industrial activities an easy task, partly due to the automatic generation of the assessment report.