Dr. Tom Ryan:

The fundamental role of the licensing process is to control the discharges from these facilities. Typically they have wastewater facilities on site that discharge. We set allowable levels for discharge, and that is based on a number of things. One is an environmental impact assessment, appropriate assessment, that is, the impact it would have on the environment and on protected species. It takes account of best available techniques. These are standards set down by Europe. It also takes account of the assimilative capacity of the receiving waters.