Procedure descriptions

Notify a change of operator for a facility handling substances hazardous to water (AwSV facility, excluding heating oil consumption facilities and JGS facilities)

When taking over an existing facility for the handling of substances hazardous to water, you, as the new operator of the facility, are obliged to notify the competent authority of this change of operator without delay. In your notification, you must provide the competent authority with information on the previous and new operators, the owner and the takeover of the facility. In principle, there is no obligation to notify in the case of heating oil consumer installations and slurry, manure and silage effluent installations (JGS installations). However, by notifying the competent authority of a change of operator for such installations, you will facilitate communication with them.

Forms/Online Services

Responsible authority

Please ensure that you submit your notification to the relevant water authority.

The relevant regional councils (Regierungspräsidien) , which are the higher water authorities, are responsible where the notification relates to premises on which at least one installation is present or planned,

  • which is listed in Annex 1, column d, of the Ordinance on Installations Requiring Authorisation (4th BImSchV) and is marked with the letter E,
  • which constitutes an operational area within the meaning of Section 3(5a) of the Federal Immission Control Act (major-accident establishment),
  • which requires a permit pursuant to Section 60(3), first sentence, point 2 or 3 of the Water Resources Act or
  • which constitutes a landfill site under Article 10 in conjunction with Annex I of the EU Industrial Emissions Directive, as amended (landfill site of Class I or higher).

The State Mining Authority, Department 9 [Freiburg Regional Council] is responsible throughout the state for sites subject to mining supervision on which one of the above-mentioned facilities is located or is to be constructed.

In all other cases:

  • in a city district: the city administration,
  • in a rural district: the District Office,

the competent lower water authority.

Abteilung 5, Umwelt [Regierungspräsidium Freiburg]
Landesbergdirektion, Abteilung 9 [Regierungspräsidium Freiburg]
Landratsamt Ortenaukreis

Details

Prerequisite

The prerequisite is a facility subject to inspection in which substances hazardous to water are handled.

Procedure

  • You can either complete the forms required for the notification and send them to the relevant authority by post or email, or use the online service.
  • The relevant authority will check your documents to ensure they are complete and, if necessary, request any missing information or documents.
  • In addition, the substantive requirements will be checked, which may also result in further information being requested.
  • If there are no objections, your application details will be entered into the authority’s specialist system.

Deadlines

Any change of operator must be notified immediately in writing or online.

Required documents

Completed advertisement form

Costs

Fees are only payable if the competent authority is required to order additional measures. The basis for calculating the fees is the statutory order and the statutes of the relevant competent authority, as well as the provisions of the State Fees Act.

Processing time

Processing takes between two and six weeks.

Miscellaneous

If you have any questions, please contact the relevant authority. You can also check for water protection areas, mineral spring protection areas and floodplains via the map service of the Baden-Württemberg State Agency for the Environment at [link]. Flood hazard maps can be viewed at https://www.hochwasser.baden-wuerttemberg.de/.

Legal basis

Verordnung über Anlagen zum Umgang mit wassergefährdenden Stoffen 1 2 (AwSV)

Release note

machine generated, based on the German release by: Umweltministerium Baden-Württemberg, 01.06.2026