If you intend to discharge anything other than clean, uncontaminated surface water to surface waters or groundwater, you must get prior written authorisation from your environmental regulator. This could be in the form of:
- a discharge consent
- a groundwater authorisation
- an environmental permit (England and Wales)
- an integrated pollution control (IPC) authorisation or pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit (Northern Ireland and Scotland)
- an authorisation under the Controlled Activity Regulations (CAR) in Scotland.
If you discharge any quantity of potentially polluting material (including sewage or trade effluent) to surface waters or groundwater and you do not have written authorisation, then you should contact your environmental regulator to discuss the best means of tackling the problem. Failure to do so could lead to enforcement action.
If you have a written authorisation from your environmental regulator, you must comply with all of the conditions included in it. Failure to do so may result in enforcement action or prosecution by your environmental regulator.
In this guideline:
