16.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) to (8), 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) is to 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 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.
(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; and
(b)where that person has been given the opportunity to supervise the making of the opening.
(5) Except as otherwise authorised under this Order, the undertaker must not, in carrying out or maintaining works, 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) If a person who receives an application for consent under paragraph (3) or approval under paragraph (4)(a) fails to notify the undertaker of a decision within 56 days of receiving an application that person is deemed to have granted consent or given approval, as the case may be.
(8) This article does not authorise any water discharge activities or groundwater activities for which a licence is required pursuant to regulation 12(1)(b) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010(2).
(9) In this article—
(a)“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain which belongs to NRW, a harbour authority within the meaning of section 57 of the Harbours Act 1964(3) (interpretation), an internal drainage board, a joint planning board, a local authority, a National Park Authority, a sewerage undertaker or an urban development corporation; and
(b)other expressions, excluding watercourse, used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991(4) have the same meaning as in that Act.
1991 c.56. Section 106 was amended by sections 43(2) and 35(8)(a) and paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 to the Competition and Service (Utilities) Act 1992 (c.43) and sections 99(2), (4), (5)(a), (5)(b),(5)(c) and 36(2) of the Water Act 2003 (c.37).
1964 c.40. There are amendments to section 57 that are not relevant to this Order.
1991 c.57 as amended by S.I. 2009/3104.