Water Industry Act 1991

[F1 96J Section 96B: enforcement and interaction with other provisions E+W

(1) The duty of a sewerage undertaker under section 96B is enforceable under section 18—

(a) by the Secretary of State, or

(b) with the consent of, or in accordance with a general authorisation given by, the Secretary of State, by the Authority.

(2) The Environment Agency must exercise its functions (whether under environmental permitting regulations or otherwise) so as to secure compliance by sewerage undertakers with the duty imposed by section 96B; those functions include, in particular, functions of determining—

(a) whether to grant or vary any permit under environmental permitting regulations, or

(b) any conditions to be included in any such permit.

(3) The Environment Agency must exercise its functions under the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/810) so as to secure compliance by sewerage undertakers with the duties imposed by those regulations to prevent and remediate environmental damage (within the meaning of those regulations) that is treated as occurring by regulation 9A of those regulations (nutrient significant sewage disposal works: environmental damage).

(4) Nothing in section 96B or 96G or this section affects—

(a) any other obligation of a sewerage undertaker relating to nutrient levels in treated effluent of a plant, or any remedy available in respect of contravention of any such obligation;

(b) any power to impose an obligation relating to nutrient levels in treated effluent of a plant (including by means of a condition included in a permit under environmental permitting regulations); and, in particular, nothing in those sections or this section is to be taken to preclude any such power being exercised so as to require a lower concentration of total nitrogen or lower concentration of total phosphorus in treated effluent of a plant than section 96B requires.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss. 96B-96N inserted (26.12.2023) by Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (c. 55), ss. 168(1), 255(6) (with s. 247)