The Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999

Discharge of effluent into waterway or underground stratum

9.—(1) No person shall, without the consent of the Department, by any means whatsoever, make any discharge into a waterway or underground stratum—

(a) of any trade or sewage effluent; or

(b) of any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter not falling within sub-paragraph (a).

(2) This Article shall not apply to any discharge which is made from a vessel.

(3) Schedule 1 shall have effect, subject to Article 13, with respect to the making of applications for consents for the purposes of this Article (“discharge consents”) and with respect to the giving, revocation and modification of such consents.

(4) Subject to the following provisions of this Part, a person who contravenes this Article or the conditions of any discharge consent shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to a fine or to both;

(b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to a fine not exceeding £20,000 or to both.

(5) A sewerage undertaker shall not be guilty of an offence under this Article by reason only of the fact that a discharge from a public sewer or public sewage treatment works operated by him contravenes conditions of a discharge consent if—

(a) the contravention is attributable to a discharge which another person made into the sewer or works; and

(b) the sewerage undertaker—

(i) was obliged under the terms of the operating agreement to receive the discharge;

(ii) could not reasonably have been expected to prevent the discharge into the sewer or works; and

(iii) made all reasonable efforts to dispose of the discharge in accordance with the terms of the operating agreement and of the discharge consent.

(6) In paragraph (5) “operating agreement”, in relation to a sewer or sewage treatment works of a sewerage undertaker, means the agreement under Article 13(4) of the Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1973, by virtue of which he operates that sewer or sewage treatment works.