Water permits and exemptions

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Types of permits, licences, consents and exemptions

Permits, licences, consents and registered exemptions are required for a range of water-related activities, including:

  1. •

    discharges to surface water. See Practice Note: Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—water discharge activities

  2. •

    discharges to groundwater. See Practice Note: Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—groundwater activities

  3. •

    activities that could affect flood risk (flood risk activities). See Practice Note: Environmental permitting—flood risk activities

  4. •

    water abstraction. See Practice Note: Water abstraction and impounding

  5. •

    water impoundment. See Practice Note: Water abstraction and impounding

  6. •

    discharges to public sewer. See Practice Note: Trade effluent consents and agreements—when are they required?

  7. •

    small sewage discharges. See Practice Note: Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—domestic septic tanks and small sewage treatment plants

  8. •

    reservoirs. See Practice Note: Reservoir registration

Due diligence in transactions

Practitioners advising on corporate, property and banking transactions need to check whether the target/seller holds all relevant water-related permits as part of the due diligence process. This extends to residential conveyancing transactions, for example, where a person is purchasing a property with a domestic septic tank or small sewage treatment plant.

Practitioners will also need to consider:

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