The Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

Provisions protecting public sewers

Restrictions on use of public sewers

168.—(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 or into any waste water treatment works—

(a) any matter likely to—

(i) injure the sewer, drain or works,

(ii) interfere with the free flow of its contents or

(iii) affect prejudicially the treatment and disposal of its contents,

either alone or in combination with the contents of the sewer, drain or works; or

(b) any such chemical refuse or waste steam, or any such liquid of a temperature higher than 43 degrees Celsius, as is by virtue of paragraph (2) a prohibited substance; or

(c) any petroleum spirit or carbide of calcium.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), chemical refuse, waste steam or a liquid of a temperature higher than that mentioned in that paragraph is a prohibited substance if (either alone or in combination with the contents of the sewer, drain or works 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 Article 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 paragraph (3) 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 Article 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 Petroleum (Consolidation) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929 (c. 13), gives off an inflammable vapour at a temperature of less than 23 degrees Celsius.

Requirement that proposed drain or sewer be constructed so as to form part of general system

169.—(1) Where—

(a) a person proposes to construct a drain or sewer; and

(b) a sewerage undertaker considers that the proposed drain or sewer is, or is likely to be, needed to form part of a general sewerage system which that undertaker provides or proposes to provide,

the undertaker may require that person to construct the drain or sewer in a manner differing, as regards material or size of pipes, depth, fall, direction or outfall or otherwise, from the manner in which that person proposes, or could otherwise be required by the undertaker, to construct it.

(2) If any person on whom requirements are imposed under this Article by a sewerage undertaker is aggrieved by the requirements, he may within 28 days appeal to the Authority.

(3) On an appeal under paragraph (2) with respect to any requirements, the Authority may either disallow the requirements or allow them with or without modification.

(4) It shall be the duty of a person on whom requirements are imposed by a sewerage undertaker under this Article to comply with those requirements.

(5) The duty of any person by virtue of paragraph (4) to comply with the requirements of a sewerage undertaker shall be owed to the undertaker; and any breach of that duty which causes the undertaker to sustain loss or damage shall be actionable at the suit of the undertaker.

(6) A sewerage undertaker which exercises the powers conferred on it by this Article shall—

(a) repay to the person constructing the drain or sewer the extra expenses reasonably incurred by that person in complying with the undertaker’s requirements; and

(b) until the drain or sewer becomes a public sewer, from time to time repay to that person so much of any expenses reasonably incurred by him in repairing or maintaining the drain or sewer as may be attributable to the undertaker’s requirements having been imposed and complied with.

(7) Nothing in this Article shall apply in relation to so much of any drain or sewer as is proposed to be constructed by any railway undertaking or harbour authority in or on land which—

(a) belongs to that undertaking or authority; and

(b) is held or used by it for the purposes of its undertaking.

Power to alter drainage system of premises in area

170.—(1) Where any premises have a drain or sewer communicating with a public sewer or a cesspool, but that system of drainage, though sufficient for the effectual drainage of the premises—

(a) is not adapted to the general sewerage system of the area; or

(b) is, in the opinion of the sewerage undertaker for the area, otherwise objectionable,

the undertaker may, at its own expense, close the existing drain or sewer and fill up the cesspool, if any, and do any work necessary for that purpose.

(2) The power conferred on a sewerage undertaker by paragraph (1) shall be exercisable on condition only that the undertaker first provides, in a position equally convenient to the owner of the premises in question, a drain or sewer which—

(a) is equally effectual for the drainage of the premises; and

(b) communicates with a public sewer.

(3) A sewerage undertaker which proposes to carry out any work under this Article shall give notice of its proposals to the owner of the premises in question.

(4) If the owner of the premises is aggrieved by the proposals, whether as regards the position or the sufficiency of the drain or sewer proposed to be provided for the drainage of the premises, he may refer the matter to the Authority for determination under Article 61.

(5) The Department may by regulations make provision with respect to consents and the conditions of consents for discharges of trade effluent into the sewer of a sewerage undertaker through a drain or sewer provided in pursuance of this Article.

(6) In this Article—

“cesspool” includes a settlement tank, septic tank or other tank for the reception or disposal of foul matter from buildings; and

“trade effluent” has the same meaning as in Chapter III.

Power to investigate defective drain or sewer

171.—(1) Where it appears to a sewerage undertaker that there are reasonable grounds for believing—

(a) that any drain connecting with a public sewer, or any private sewer so connecting, is in such a condition as to be injurious or likely to cause injury to health or as to be a nuisance; or

(b) that any such drain or private sewer is so defective as to admit subsoil water,

the undertaker may examine the condition of the drain or sewer and, for that purpose, may apply any test, other than a test by water under pressure and, if the undertaker deems it necessary, open the ground.

(2) If on examination the drain or sewer is found to be in proper condition, the undertaker shall, as soon as possible, reinstate any ground which has been opened by it and make good any damage done by the undertaker.