The Water Resources (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

PART 1GENERAL

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Water Resources (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 and shall come into operation on 9th March 2005.

Interpretation

2.—(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(1) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.

(2) In these Regulations –

“agriculture” includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, livestock breeding or keeping, the use of land as grazing land, meadowland, osier land, reed beds, market gardens and nursery grounds;

“application” means –

“Commission” means the Water Appeals Commission established under Article 7 of the Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1973;

“consent” means a consent granted under Part III;

“consultation body” means a person likely to have an interest in a project by reason of his specific environmental responsibilities or hold any information relevant to a project;

“the Department” means the Department of the Environment;

“the Directive” means Council Directive 85/337/EEC, concerning the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC;

“relevant project” has the meaning given by regulation 3.

(3) Other expressions used both in these Regulations and in the Directive have the same meaning in these Regulations as they have in the Directive.

Application

3.—(1) An environmental impact assessment shall be carried out in accordance with these Regulations in relation to a relevant project.

(2) A project is a relevant project if –

(a)it is a water management project for agriculture, including an irrigation project; and

(b)it would be likely to have significant effects on the environment by virtue, inter alia, of its nature, size or location.

(3) A project is not a relevant project if it –

(a)constitutes development to which the Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999(2) apply;

(b)constitutes the carrying out of drainage works within the meaning of the Drainage (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001(3); or

(c)involves the abstraction, diversion or impoundment of less than 200 cubic metres of water in any period of 24 hours.