Water Industry Act 1991

111 Restrictions on use of public sewers. E+W

(1) Subject to the provisions of Chapter III of this Part, no person shall throw, empty or turn, or suffer or permit to be thrown or emptied or to pass, into any public sewer, or into any drain or sewer communicating with a public sewer—

(a) any matter likely to injure the sewer or drain, to interfere with the free flow of its contents or to affect prejudicially the treatment and disposal of its contents; or

(b) any such chemical refuse or waste steam, or any such liquid of a temperature higher than [F1 forty-three degrees Celsius] , as by virtue of subsection (2) below is a prohibited substance; or

(c) any petroleum spirit or carbide of calcium.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) above, chemical refuse, waste steam or a liquid of a temperature higher than that mentioned in that subsection is a prohibited substance if (either alone or in combination with the contents of the sewer or drain in question) it is or, in the case of the liquid, is when so heated—

(a) dangerous;

(b) the cause of a nuisance; or

(c) injurious, or likely to cause injury, to health.

(3) A person who contravenes any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum and to a further fine not exceeding £50 for each day on which the offence continues after conviction;

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine or to both.

(4) For the purposes of so much of subsection (3) above as makes provision for the imposition of a daily penalty—

(a) the court by which a person is convicted of the original offence may fix a reasonable date from the date of conviction for compliance by the defendant with any directions given by the court; and

(b) where a court has fixed such a period, the daily penalty shall not be imposed in respect of any day before the end of that period.

(5) In this section the expression “petroleum spirit” means any such—

(a) crude petroleum;

(b) oil made from petroleum or from coal, shale, peat or other bituminous substances; or

(c) product of petroleum or mixture containing petroleum,

as, when tested in the manner prescribed by or under the M1 Petroleum (Consolidation) Act 1928, gives off an inflammable vapour at a temperature of less than [F2 twenty-three degrees Celsius] .

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 111(1)(b) substituted (1.4.2007) by Water Act 2003 (c. 37), ss. 101(1), 105(3), Sch. 7 para. 39(2)(a); S.I. 2007/1021, art. 2(d)

F2 Words in s. 111(5) substituted (1.4.2007) by Water Act 2003 (c. 37), ss. 101(1), 105(3), Sch. 7 para. 39(2)(b); S.I. 2007/1021, art. 2(d)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 111 amended (27.8.1993) by 1993 c. 12, ss. 40, 51(2), Sch. 3 Pt. I para. 8 (with ss. 42, 46).

C2 S. 111 modified by S.I. 2010/675, Sch. 23 Pt. 8 para. 3 Table 9 (as substituted (1.10.2011) by The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/2043), reg. 1(b), Sch. 1)

C3 S. 111 modified (1.1.2017) by The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1154), reg. 1(1), Sch. 23 paras. 1(3), 2 Table 9 (with regs. 1(3), 77-79, Sch. 4)

Marginal Citations

M1 1928 c. 32.