Water Act 1989

107 Offences of polluting controlled waters etc

(1) Subject to section 108 below, a person contravenes this section if he causes or knowingly permits—

(a) any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter or any solid waste matter to enter any controlled waters; or

(b) any matter, other than trade effluent or sewage effluent, to enter controlled waters by being discharged from a drain or sewer in contravention of a relevant prohibition; or

(c) any trade effluent or sewage effluent to be discharged—

(i) into any controlled waters; or

(ii) from land in England and Wales, through a pipe, into the sea outside the seaward limits of controlled waters;

or

(d) any trade effluent or sewage effluent to be discharged, in contravention of any relevant prohibition, from a building or from any fixed plant on to or into any land or into any waters of a lake or pond which are not inland waters; or

(e) any matter whatever to enter any inland waters so as to tend (either directly or in combination with other matter which he or another person causes or permits to enter those waters) to impede the proper flow of the waters in a manner leading or likely to lead to a substantial aggravation of—

(i) pollution due to other causes; or

(ii) the consequences of such pollution.

(2) For the purposes of this section a discharge of any effluent or other matter is, in relation to any person, in contravention of a relevant prohibition if—

(a) the Authority has given that person notice prohibiting him from making or, as the case may be, continuing the discharge;

(b) the Authority has given that person notice prohibiting him from making or, as the case may be, continuing the discharge unless specified conditions are observed, and those conditions are not observed; or

(c) the effluent or matter discharged contains a prescribed substance or a prescribed concentration of such a substance or derives from a prescribed process or from a process involving the use of prescribed substances or the use of such substances in quantities which exceed the prescribed amounts;

but nothing in this subsection shall authorise the giving of such a notice in respect of discharges from a vessel and nothing in any regulations made by virtue of paragraph (c) above shall require any discharge from a vessel to be treated as a discharge in contravention of a relevant prohibition.

(3) A notice given for the purposes of subsection (2)(a) or (b) above shall expire at such time as may be specified in the notice; and that time shall not be before the end of the period of three months beginning with the day on which the notice is given except in a case where the Authority is satisfied that there is an emergency which requires the relevant prohibition in question to come into force at such time before the end of that period as may be so specified.

(4) Where, in the case of such a notice for the purposes of subsection (2)(a) or (b) above as (but for this subsection) would expire at a time which is or is after the end of the said period of three months, an application is made before that time for a consent under this Chapter in respect of the discharge to which the notice relates, that notice shall be deemed not to expire until the result of the application becomes final—

(a) on the grant or withdrawal of the application;

(b) on the expiration, without the bringing of an appeal with respect to the decision on the application, of any period prescribed as the period within which any such appeal must be brought; or

(c) on the withdrawal or determination of any such appeal.

(5) For the purposes of this section where—

(a) any sewage effluent is discharged as mentioned in subsection (1)(c) or (d) above from any sewer or works vested in a sewerage undertaker; and

(b) the undertaker did not cause or knowingly permit the discharge but was bound (either unconditionally or subject to conditions which were observed) to receive into the sewer or works matter included in the discharge,

the undertaker shall be deemed to have caused the discharge.

(6) A person who contravenes this section or the conditions of any consent given under this Chapter for the purposes of this section shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both;

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