The responsibilities in the area of immission control are regulated in the Immission Control Competence Ordinance of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

In most cases, the competent authority for installations requiring authorisation under immission control legislation is the local lower immission control authority, i.e

• the district office if the premises with the plant are located in a district,
• the city administration if the premises with the installation are located in a city district.

A different responsibility applies in the following cases (e.g. for companies that are subject to the European Industrial Emissions Directive, the Hazardous Incident Ordinance or mining law):

Departments 5, Environment of the respective locally responsible regional councils are the competent immission control authorities for company premises on which

• at least one installation that is labelled with the letter E in column d of Annex 1 of the Ordinance on Installations Requiring a Permit,
• at least one operating area in accordance with Section 3 (5a) of the Federal Immission Control Act (hazardous incident operation),
• at least one installation that requires a licence pursuant to Section 60 (3) sentence 1 no. 2 or no. 3 of the Federal Water Act, or
• at least one landfill in accordance with Article 10 in conjunction with Annex I of Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control), as amended

exists or is to be constructed.

Department 9, State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining of the Freiburg Regional Council is also the state-wide competent immission control authority for

• Operational sites, including the facilities and activities located on them, which are subject to mining supervision,
• Operating sites with cable cars and funicular railways used for passenger transport,
• Sites with high-pressure gas pipelines which, as energy installations within the meaning of the Energy Industry Act, serve to supply gas and which are designed for a maximum permissible operating pressure of more than 16 bar,
• Underground waste disposal facilities and
• Sites with installations used for the construction, significant expansion and significant modification of underground cavities.