In these Regulations—

• F7“the 2017 Regulations” means the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017;

• “the Appeals Commission” means the Water Appeals Commission for Northern Ireland;

• “authorisation” means any of the following in so far as they relate to groundwater—

  1. a

     an authorisation under regulation 19;

  2. b

     a discharge consent under Article 7A of The Water (Northern Ireland) Order 19992 (as inserted by Article 280 of the Water & Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006)3;

  3. c

     an authorisation under Article 6 of the Industrial Pollution Control (Northern Ireland) Order 19974 in relation to a process designated for integrated central control under Article 3 of that Order;

  4. d

     a permit under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (Northern Ireland) 20035 in so far as it authorises the operation of a Part A installation or a Part A mobile plant within the meaning of those Regulations;

  5. e

     a waste management licence, existing disposal licence or existing resolution of a district council;

  6. f

     the registration of mobile radioactive apparatus under section 10 of the Radioactive Substances Act 19936; or

  7. g

     an authorisation for disposal in accordance with section 13 of the Radioactive Substances Act 1993;

• F1“background level” means the concentration of a substance or the value of an indicator in a body of groundwater corresponding to no, or only very minor, anthropogenic alterations to undisturbed conditions;

• F8“baseline level” means the average value measured at least during the reference years 2007 and 2008 on the basis of monitoring in accordance with a programme prepared under regulation 11 of the 2017 Regulations;

• “the Department” means the Department of the Environment;

• “direct input” in relation to groundwater means the introduction of a pollutant into groundwater without percolation through soil or subsoil;

• “the Directive” means Council Directive 2006/118/EC of 12 December 2006 on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration7F6as amended by Commission Directive 2014/80/EU;

• “existing disposal licence” and “existing resolution of a district council” shall have the meanings given by Article 47(1) of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 19978;

• “groundwater” means all water which is below the surface of the ground in the saturation zone and in direct contact with the ground or subsoil;

• F2“groundwater quality standard” means an environmental quality standard expressed as the concentration of a particular pollutant, group of pollutants or indicator of pollution in groundwater, which should not be exceeded in order to protect human health and the environment;

• “indirect input” in relation to groundwater means the introduction of a pollutant into groundwater after percolation through soil or subsoil;

• “pollutant” means any substance liable to cause pollution;

• “pollution” means the direct or indirect introduction, as a result of human activity, of substances or heat into air, water or land which may be harmful to human health or the quality of aquatic ecosystems or terrestrial ecosystems directly depending on aquatic ecosystems, which result in damage to material property, or which impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment;

• F9“river basin district and international river basin districts” mean—

  1. a

     an area identified by regulation 4(1) of the 2017 Regulations, being the main unit for the management of river basins for the purposes of the Water Framework Directive and being made up of a river basin or neighbouring river basins, together with associated groundwater, transitional waters and coastal water;

  2. b

     the North Eastern River Basin District; or

  3. c

     the Neagh Bann, North Western and Shannon International River Basin Districts;

• F3“significant and sustained upward trend” means any statistically and environmentally significant increase of concentration of a pollutant, group of pollutants, or indicator of pollution in groundwater for which trend reversal is identified as being necessary in accordance with regulation 10;

• “starting point” in relation to trend reversal means the point at which measures must be implemented to reverse a significant and sustained upward trend in pollutant concentrations or indicators of pollution identified under regulation 10(1)(a);

• F4“threshold value” means a groundwater quality standard established under regulation 8;

• “waste management licence” means a waste management licence issued under the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997; and

• “the Water Framework Directive” means Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23rd October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy10.

Any expression used in both these Regulations, the Directive and the Water Framework Directive and not otherwise defined in these Regulations has the same meaning for the purposes of these Regulations as it has for the purposes of the Directive.

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The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 195411 shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.