Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act 1951

5Bye-laws

(1)A river board may 'by bye-laws make such provision as respects any stream or part of a stream in their area as appears to them expedient—

(a)for prescribing standards for the purpose of determining when matter is to be treated as poisonous, noxious or polluting for the purposes of this Act;

(b)for prohibiting or regulating the washing or cleansing in the stream of things of any class or description, or the putting into the stream of litter or other objectionable matter, whether poisonous, noxious or polluting or not;

(c)for prohibiting or regulating the keeping or use on the stream of vessels provided with sanitary appliances from which polluting matter passes or can pass into the stream.

A river board in exercising the powers conferred by this subsection to make bye-laws for any stream or part of a stream shall have regard to the character and flow of the stream and to the extent to which the stream is or may in the future be used for industrial purposes, fisheries, water supply, agriculture, transport or navigation, and before making any such bye-laws by virtue of paragraph (a) of this subsection shall make such survey (if any) as may be necessary of the area in which that stream or part of a stream is situated.

(2)For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that bye-laws made by virtue of paragraph (a) of the foregoing subsection may prescribe standards for the purpose of determining when matter is to be treated as poisonous, noxious or polluting—

(a)by reason of its temperature ;

(b)by reason of its effect in discolouring a stream;

and may provide for an effluent to be, or not to be, so treated according to the relation between the volume and rate of flow of the water of the stream and the volume and rate of discharge of the effluent.

(3)In so far as standards are prescribed for any stream or part of a stream by bye-laws so made, they shall be conclusive for the purposes of this Act on the question what is or is not poisonous, noxious or polluting in relation to that stream or part; and where any such effluent as is mentioned in subsection (3) of section two of this Act is poisonous, noxious or polluting in any respect in which it ought to comply with a standard so prescribed, that subsection shall not apply to the effluent.

(4)No matter entering a stream shall, in any respect in which it complies with a standard so prescribed, be treated for the purposes of subsection (1) of section eight of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1923 (which penalises the discharge of poisonous matter into waters containing fish), as causing the water to be poisonous or injurious to fish or to the spawning grounds, spawn or food of fish.

(5)Where, in consequence of the making of any bye-laws by virtue of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section as respects any stream or part of a stream, a person who is or has been discharging any trade or sewage effluent into that stream or part proposes to take steps either—

(a)to ensure that the effluent will comply with the standards prescribed by the bye-laws ; or

(b)to enable him to discontinue the discharge ;

but those steps could not be taken or completed before the date when the bye-laws come into force, then he may apply to the river board (whether before or after that date) and the board, if they are satisfied that it is reasonable so to do, may direct that for such period as may be specified in that or any subsequent direction the effluent shall be treated as complying with those standards so long as such conditions (if any) as may be so specified are observed (including, in particular, conditions requiring the steps proposed to be taken to be completed within such time, by such stages and with such modifications as may be so specified, if any).

(6)Before making bye-laws under this section as respects any stream or part of a stream, a river board shall give reasonable notice of their intention to do so to any body of persons designated to them for this purpose by the Minister as being representative of a class of persons having a material interest in the waters of the stream or of a part of it to which the bye-laws are to relate.

(7)Any person contravening bye-laws made by virtue of paragraph (b) or (c) of subsection (1) of this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds and, where a contravention of bye-laws made by virtue of the said paragraph (c) is continued after a person has been convicted therefor, that person shall be guilty of a further offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds for every day on which the contravention is so continued.