PART 4SUPPLEMENTAL POWERS

Discharge of water14.

(1)

The undertaker may use any watercourse or any public sewer or drain for the drainage of water in connection with the carrying out or maintenance of the authorised development and for that purpose may lay down, take up and alter pipes and may, on any land within the works limits, make openings into, and connections with, that watercourse, public sewer or drain.

(2)

Any dispute arising from the making of connections to or the use of a public sewer or drain by the undertaker pursuant to paragraph (1) must be determined as if it were a question arising under section 106 of the Water Industry Act 199124 (right to communicate with public sewers).

(3)

The undertaker must not discharge any water into any watercourse, public sewer or drain except with the consent of the person to whom it belongs; and such consent may be given subject to such terms and conditions as that person may reasonably impose, but must not be unreasonably withheld.

(4)

The undertaker must not make any opening into any public sewer or drain except—

(a)

in accordance with plans approved by the person to whom the sewer or drain belongs, but such approval must not be unreasonably withheld; and

(b)

where that person has been given the opportunity to observe the making of the opening.

(5)

The undertaker must not, in carrying out or maintaining works pursuant to this article, damage or interfere with the bed or banks of any watercourse forming part of a main river.

(6)

The undertaker must take such steps as are reasonably practicable to secure that any water discharged into a watercourse or public sewer or drain pursuant to this article is as free as may be practicable from gravel, soil or other solid substance, oil or matter in suspension.

(7)

This article does not authorise a groundwater activity or a water discharge activity within the meaning of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 201025.

(8)

In this article—

(a)

“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain which belongs to the Homes and Communities Agency, the Environment Agency, a harbour authority within the meaning of section 57 of the Harbours Act 196426 (interpretation), an internal drainage board, a joint planning board, a local authority, a National Park Authority, a sewerage undertaker27 or an urban development corporation; and

(b)

other expressions, excluding watercourse, used both in this article and in the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 have the same meaning as in those Regulations.