What you must do
You must have a permit or authorisation from your environmental regulator before you discharge anything other than clean, uncontaminated run-off to surface water or groundwater.
You must comply with all conditions in your permit or authorisation. If you don’t comply with the conditions you can be fined or prosecuted.
What you must do in England and Wales
You must have an environmental permit or a registered exemption from the Environment Agency if you carry out any water discharge activity or groundwater activity.
Water discharge activities include:
- discharge of poisonous or polluting matter or waste matter, trade effluent or sewage effluent into inland freshwaters, coastal waters and estuaries
- discharging trade effluent or sewage effluent from land by a pipe into the sea
- removal of material from the bottom, bed or channel of inland freshwaters that has built up at a dam, weir or sluice, by causing any of that material to be carried away in the water
- cutting or uprooting large amounts of vegetation in or nearby any inland freshwaters if you do not try to remove the vegetation from the water.
Groundwater activities include:
- discharging a pollutant directly into groundwater
- discharging a pollutant that might indirectly enter groundwater
- any other discharge that might cause a pollutant to enter groundwater directly or indirectly.
Groundwater is all water below the surface of the ground, in the saturation zone, ie below the water table.
Apply for an environmental permit in England and Wales
Environmental permits replaced discharge consents and groundwater authorisations and permits on 6 April 2010. If you had a consent, authorisation or permit before this date it will have become an environmental permit automatically.
See our guidance on how to apply for an environmental permit.
You can download an application form for an environmental permit from the Environment Agency website.
Environment Agency: Appying for a Environmental permit
Environment Agency: Environmental permitting guidance
Do you need to register an exemption from environmental permitting in England and Wales?
Exemptions for discharges to surface water
You can register an exemption from an environmental permit with the Environment Agency if you:
- discharge 5 cubic metres (m³) or less of treated sewage effluent per day to surface waters from a sewage treatment plant
- cut or uproot vegetation in or nearby any inland freshwaters and follow the Environment Agency’s guidance.
Environment Agency: Registration of exempt discharges to surface waters and groundwater
Environment Agency: Technical guidance for registration of small sewage effluent discharges (Adobe PDF - 206KB)
Exemptions for discharges to groundwater
You can register an exemption from an environmental permit with the Environment Agency if you are discharging to groundwater:
- 2 cubic metres (m³) or less of treated sewage effluent per day from a septic tank or sewage treatment plant
- as a part a scientific study of groundwater movements or groundwater pollution, for example discharging a tracer substance.
Environment Agency: Registration of exempt discharges to surface waters and groundwater
You must comply with all the conditions of your exemption.
To qualify for the exemption your septic tank or sewage treatment plant must be:
- designed and installed correctly, and
- maintained regularly to reduce the risk of pollution.
If you want to register or check the conditions of an exemption you should contact the Environment Agency.
Environment Agency: Contact us
What you must do in Northern Ireland
If you discharge anything other than clean, uncontaminated surface water you must have a:
- discharge consent for discharges to surface water
- groundwater authorisation for discharges to groundwater.
Apply for a discharge consent or groundwater authorisation in Northern Ireland
To apply for a discharge consent to discharge to surface waters or an authorisation to discharge to groundwater you should contact the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).
When you get consent or authorisation, it will include conditions you must comply with.
NIEA: Regulation of discharges
NIEA: Ground water authorisations in Northern Ireland
What you must do in Scotland
If you discharge anything other than clean, uncontaminated surface water to surface water or groundwater you must have:
- an authorisation under the Controlled Activity Regulations (CAR)
- an integrated pollution control (IPC) authorisation or pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit.
Apply for an authorisation under the Controlled Activity Regulations (CAR) in Scotland
In Scotland you must have authorisation from SEPA under their Controlled Activity Regulations (CAR). CAR has three levels of authorisation:
- general binding rules
- registration
- water use licences.
SEPA can change the level of authorisation for your activity in order to protect the water environment.
Comply with general binding rules
Certain low risk surface water discharges are authorised by general binding rules (GBRs) in Scotland. When you carry out an activity and comply with the relevant GBRs, you do not need to contact SEPA or apply for a formal authorisation.
Register with SEPA
Registrations in Scotland cover activities which present a low risk individually, but which cumulatively may pose a risk to the water environment. You must provide SEPA with a description of the controlled activity and its location. You must comply with a set of basic rules described in the notification of registration.
SEPA: Web registration for activities requiring registration under the Controlled Activities Regulations (CAR)
Get a water use licence
Licences in Scotland cover activities that are regarded as presenting a medium to high risk of impact on the water environment.
You will need a water use licence if:
- site-specific controls are needed for your activity
- constraints need to be imposed upon your activity.
There are two types of licence application, based on the scale and level of risk of your activity: a simple licence or a complex licence.
You must identify a 'responsible person' to ensure that your business complies with the conditions of the licence. A responsible person can be an individual, a company or a partnership.
