PART 4Supplemental powers

Discharge of water18.

(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 project and for that purpose may lay down, take up and alter pipes and may, on any land within the Order limits, make openings into, and connections with, the 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 dispute under section 106 of the Water Industry Act 199128 (right to communicate with public sewers).

(3)

The undertaker must not discharge any water into a 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 the person may reasonably impose, but must not be unreasonably withheld.

(4)

The undertaker must not make any opening into a 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 the person has been given the opportunity to supervise 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 a 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 201029.

(8)

In this article—

(a)

“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain that belongs to the Environment Agency, an internal drainage board, a local authority or a sewerage undertaker30; and

(b)

other expressions, excluding watercourse, used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991 have the same meaning as in that Act.

(9)

This article does not relieve the undertaker of any obligation to obtain a permit or licence from the Environment Agency or of any other obligation under any other legislation that may be required to authorise the making of a connection to, or the use of, a public sewer or drain by the undertaker pursuant to paragraph (1) or the discharge of any water into any watercourse, sewer or drain pursuant to paragraph (2).