Article 17 Discharge of waterI1

England, Wales and Scotland

(1)

Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the undertaker may use any watercourse or any public sewer or drain for the drainage of water in connection with the carrying out or maintenance of the authorised development and for that purpose may lay down, take up and alter pipes and may, on any land within the Order limits, make openings into, and connections with, the watercourse, public sewer or drain.

(2)

Any dispute arising from the making of connections to or the use of a public sewer or drain by the undertaker pursuant to paragraph (1) must be determined as if it were a dispute under section 106 (right to communicate with public sewers) of the Water Industry Act 1991^f1.

(3)

The undertaker must not discharge any water into any watercourse, public sewer or drain except with the consent of the person to whom it belongs and such consent may be given subject to such terms and conditions as that person may reasonably impose, but must not be unreasonably withheld.

(4)

The undertaker must not make any opening into any public sewer or drain except—

(a)

in accordance with plans approved by the person to whom the sewer or drain belongs, but approval must not be unreasonably withheld; and

(b)

where that person has been given the opportunity to supervise the making of the opening.

(5)

The undertaker must take such steps as are reasonably practicable to secure that any water discharged into a watercourse or public sewer or drain pursuant to this article is as free as may be practicable from gravel, soil or other solid substance, oil or matter in suspension.

(6)

This article does not authorise any water discharge activities or groundwater activities for which an environmental permit would be required pursuant to regulation 12(1) (requirement for an environmental permit) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016^f2.

(7)

In this article—

(a)

“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain which belongs to Homes England, the Environment Agency, a harbour authority within the meaning of section 57 (interpretation) of the Harbours Act 1964^f3, an internal drainage board, a joint planning board, a local authority, a National Park Authority, a sewerage undertaker or an urban development corporation; and

(b)

other terms and expressions, with the exception of the term “watercourse”, used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991^f4 have the same meaning as in that Act.

Annotations

Commencement

I1: Art. 17 in force at 11.3.2024, see art. 1

Footnotes

f1: 1991 c. 56. Section 106 was amended by sections 35(8)(a) and 43(2) and paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 to the Competition and Service (Utilities) Act 1992 (c. 43) and sections 36(2) and 99(2), (4), and (5) of the Water Act 2003 (c. 37).
f2: S.I. 2016/1154.
f3: 1964 c. 40. Paragraph 9B was inserted into Schedule 2 by paragraph 9 of Schedule 3 of the Transport and Works Act 1992 (c. 42).
f4: 1991 c. 57.