Water pollution

What can pollute water?

Almost any solid, liquid or gaseous substance entering surface waters or ground waters could cause pollution. This includes:

• chemicals
• salt
• wash waters
• waste products
• trade effluents
• fuels
• hot water
• rainwater that is contaminated by substances from your site.

Most substances that businesses use and dispose of are unsuitable for discharge to surface waters or ground waters without being treated first.

If you pollute the water environment, you are probably committing an offence.

What are surface waters and ground waters?

There are different pieces of legislation that affect water, you should be aware of the following terms and their meaning:

• Surface waters include rivers, lakes, lochs, loughs, reservoirs, ponds, streams, canals, ditches, coastal waters and estuaries.
• Groundwater is the top level of water that is stored underground, in the saturated zone.
• Ground waters include groundwater as well as water above the saturated zone. This is all water contained underground.

In this guideline: