10.—(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 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 1991(1) (right to communicate with public sewers).
(3) The undertaker must not discharge water into a watercourse or a 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 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 that 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 any watercourse forming part of a main river other than in accordance with a consent granted by the Natural Resources Body for Wales.
(6) The undertaker must take such steps as are reasonably practicable to secure that any water discharged into a watercourse or a 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 2010(2).
(8) In this article—
(a)“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain that belongs to the Homes and Communities Agency, the Natural Resources Body for Wales, a harbour authority within the meaning of section 57 of the Harbours Act 1964(3) (interpretation), an internal drainage board, a local authority, a sewerage undertaker(4) or an urban development corporation; and
(b)other expressions, excluding watercourse, used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991(5) have the same meaning as in that Act.
1991 c.56. Section 106 was amended by section 35(8)(a) and 43(2) of, and by Schedule 2 to, the Competition and Service (Utilities) Act 1992 (c.43) and sections 36(2) and 99 of the Water Act 2003 (c.37).
S.I. 2010/675. “Groundwater activity” is defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 22. “Water discharge activity” is defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 21.
“Sewerage undertaker” is defined in Schedule 1 to the Interpretation Act 1978 (c.30).