Knowingly permit pollution meaning

Introduction What is groundwater? In brief, groundwater is water stored beneath the surface. Rainfall gathers and then infiltrates the soil, percolating through soils and rocks into aquifers—layers of porous rock or sediment. The British Geological Survey notes that groundwater supplies around one third of the public water in England and makes an important contribution in Wales and Scotland. What is groundwater activity Government guidance explains that a groundwater activity includes: discharging a pollutant that causes, or could cause, a direct or indirect input to groundwater any other discharge that may lead to a direct or indirect pollutant input to groundwater an activity subject to a Schedule 22 notice that has taken effect an activity, carried out as part of another class of regulated facility, that may cause such a discharge The guidance further states it is an offence to cause or knowingly permit a groundwater activity unless authorised by a permit or registered as exempt. Environmental...

This Practice Note examines the principal legislation in England and Wales for controlling and preventing water pollution, along with the related offences. Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016—pollution offence and environmental permits The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations (EPR 2010), SI 2010/675 repealed the main water pollution offence in section 85 of the Water Resources Act 1991 (WRA 1991) and revoked the Groundwater (England and Wales) Regulations 2009, SI 2009/2902. Those offences are now contained in the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR 2016), SI 2016/1154, which repealed and replaced EPR 2010 from 1 January 2017. Under EPR 2016, SI 2016/1154, reg 38, it is an offence to: operate a regulated facility cause or knowingly permit the discharge of any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, waste matter, trade effluent or sewage effluent to surface water (water discharge activity), or cause or knowingly permit the discharge of a pollutant or other discharge that might lead to the input of a pollutant...

General position regarding land contamination and water pollution There is ordinarily no blanket duty on polluters, owners or occupiers of contaminated land to carry out remediation, nor even to alert the regulators, unless a legal or contractual trigger in this Practice Note bites. Examples include: an environmental permit condition obliges the operator to act at once or to inform the regulators the contamination, water pollution or harm to protected nature sites amounts to “environmental damage” or there is an “imminent threat” of such damage urgent steps are necessary to protect the health and safety of employees or others who could be impacted Accordingly, in many situations there is no statutory requirement to clean up contaminated land, let alone to take immediate measures. Voluntary urgent remediation Given how pollution and waste offences are framed, anyone causing, or knowingly permitting, the harm would be prudent to act swiftly to limit potential liabilities. When sentencing for environmental offences, the Magistrates’ Court Sentencing...