15.—(1) The undertaker may use any watercourse or any public sewer or drain for the drainage of water in connection with the carrying out 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) 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) shall be determined as if it were a dispute under section 106 of the Water Industry Act 1991(1) (right to communicate with public sewers).
(3) The undertaker shall 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 shall not be unreasonably withheld.
(4) The undertaker shall 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 shall not be unreasonably withheld; and
(b)where that person has been given the opportunity to supervise the making of the opening.
(5) The undertaker shall 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.
(6) The undertaker shall 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) This article does not authorise the discharge or entry into inland fresh waters or coastal waters of any matter whose entry or discharge into those waters is prohibited by regulation 38 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010(2).
(8) In this article—
(a)“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain which belongs to the Homes and Communities Agency, the Environment Agency or a harbour authority within the meaning of section 57 of the Harbours Act 1964(3) (interpretation), an internal drainage board, a joint planning board, a local authority or a sewerage undertaker; and
(b)other expressions, excluding watercourse, used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991 have the same meaning as in that Act.
1991 c. 56; section 106 is amended by sections 36(2) and 99 of the Water Act 2003 (c. 37). There are other amendments to this section which are not relevant to this Order.
1964 c. 40; there are amendments to section 57 that are not relevant to this Order.