Never let your plant's Environmental Fitness Certificate expire unrenewed

Law 11,459 of Buenos Aires Province applies to all industries installed or being installed, expanded or modified in the Province (Article 1). Every industrial establishment must hold an Environmental Fitness Certificate (CAA) as an essential requirement for the municipality to grant its industrial licence; the certificate is issued by the enforcing authority for third-category establishments and by the municipality itself for first and second category (Article 3). As worded by Law 15,107, the CAA is valid for four years, its issue comprises three phases (classification of the environmental complexity level, authorisation of the works and authorisation to operate), and the enforcing authority sets how it is renewed before it lapses (Article 11). Expansions, modifications or changes to buildings, premises or installations require applying for the CAA beforehand (Article 10).

Decree 531/19, which implements the law, as amended by Decree 973/20, provides that renewal of the CAA must be started within the sixty calendar days before the certificate granted loses validity, and implies that the establishment has not altered its environmental complexity level or changed its main processes; the enforcing authority or the municipality require the applicant to confirm this and set a simplified renewal process. A renewal does not issue a new CAA: it extends the validity of the one already obtained (Annex, Article 11). If unmet adjustments or changes to installations or processes are found, a reclassification must be started; every successful reclassification grants a new CAA for another four years (Annex, Article 11). The CAA of an industrial park or grouping, by contrast, needs no renewal (Annex, Article 4).

The renewal procedure approved by OPDS Resolution 494/19 (Annex II) is handled through the provincial web portal by the holder, an attorney-in-fact or a professional listed in the RUPAYAR register, for third-category establishments, second-category ones with a municipal agreement, or those located in provincial jurisdiction; the user must hold a CAA that was granted, whether valid or expired, must have started renewal of the related procedures before the Water Authority and the environmental agency, and must start the procedure within the sixty calendar days before expiry, with no filing accepted earlier (point 3). With acceptable results, the CAA's validity is extended for a new four-year period by resolution, recorded in the Environmental Register of Industrial Establishments (point 4.1).