ANNEX II REQUIREMENTS FOR LOADING AND UNLOADING INSTALLATIONS AT TERMINALS

1.

Displacement vapours from the mobile container being loaded must be returned through a vapour-tight connection line to a vapour recovery unit for regeneration at the terminal.

This provision does not apply to top-loading tankers as long as that loading system is permitted.

At terminals which load petrol onto vessels, a vapour incineration unit may be substituted for a vapour recovery unit if vapour recovery is unsafe or technically impossible because of the volume of return vapour. The requirements concerning atmospheric emissions from the vapour recovery unit shall also apply to the vapour incineration unit.

At terminals with a throughput of less than 25 000 tonnes/year, intermediate storage of vapours may be substituted for immediate vapour recovery at the terminal.

2.

The mean concentration of vapours in the exhaust from the vapour recovery — unit corrected for dilution during treatment — must not exceed 35 g/normal cubic metre (Nm3) for any one hour.

For vapour recovery units, installed before 1 January 1993, the United Kingdom may grant a derogation from the limit value of 35 g/Nm3 for any one hour, set down in this Annex, subject to the following conditions:

The Member States' competent authorities must ensure that the measurement and analysis methods and their frequency are established.

The measurements must be made over the course of one full working day (seven hours minimum) of normal throughput.

Measurements may be continuous or discontinuous. If discontinuous measurements are employed, at least four measurements per hour must be made.

The overall measurement error due to the equipment used, the calibration gas and the procedure used must not exceed 10 % of the measured value.

The equipment used must be capable of measuring concentrations at least as low as 3 g/Nm3.

The precision must be at least 95 % of the measured value.

3.

The Member States' competent authorities must ensure that the connection lines and pipe installations are checked regularly for leaks.

4.

The Member States' competent authorities must ensure that loading operations are shut down at the gantry in the case of a leak of vapour. Equipment for such shutdown operations must be installed at the gantry.

5.

Where top-loading of mobile containers is permissible, the outlet of the loading arm must be kept near the bottom of the mobile container, in order to avoid splash loading.