The Sizewell C (Nuclear Generating Station) Order 2022

Discharge of water

25.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the undertaker may use any watercourse or any public sewer or drain for the drainage of water in connection with the construction, operation 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) 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, but must not be unreasonably withheld or delayed.

(3) 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, but such approval must not be unreasonably withheld or delayed; and

(b)where that person has been given the opportunity to supervise the making of the opening.

(4) Where the person to whom the watercourse, sewer or drain belongs receives an application for consent under paragraph (2) or approval under paragraph (3)(a) and fails to notify the undertaker of its decision within 28 days of receiving an application, that person will be deemed to have granted consent or given approval, as the case may be.

(5) The undertaker must not, in carrying out or maintaining works pursuant to this article, damage or interfere with the bed or banks of any watercourse forming part of a main river, save where such damage or interference is required for the purpose of carrying out Works authorised under this Order.

(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) 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) will be determined as if it were a dispute under section 106 of the Water Industry Act 1991 (Right to communicate with public sewers)(1).

(8) In this article—

(a)“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain which belongs to the Environment Agency, an internal drainage board, a local authority or a sewerage undertaker; and

(b)except as provided in article 2 (interpretation), other expressions used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991(2) have the same meaning as in that Act.

(9) Nothing in this article overrides the requirement for an environmental permit under regulation 12(1)(b) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016(3).