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APPENDIX I
A summary of some of the Law in England and Wales relating to
the discharge of Liquid and Solid Wastes
1936 The Public Health Act. Responsibility of a local authority to drain its district.
Provision of foul sewers and surface water drainage and sewage treatment works
individually or through joint boards.
1937 The Public Health (Drainage of Trade Premises) Act. The Act sets out local
authority and industry rights as to trade wastes, including toxic wastes and classified
exempted effluents.
1948 The River Boards Act. The constitution of River Authorities.
1951 The Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act. The Act requires the consent of the
river authority for the discharge of sewage works effluents, including conditions
as to quality and quantity of effluents.
1955 Tne Oil in Navigable Waters Act.
1960 The Clean Rivers (Estuaries and Tidal Waters) Act. The Act sets out for each
river mentioned in the Act, the upper limit of tidal waters and the seaward limit
over which the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Acts are applicable.
1961 Tne Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act. The Act made important changes
in the 1951 Act as a result of the 1960 Trade Effluent Sub-Committee Report. The
Act required consent for all discharges existing prior to and since commencement
of the 1951 Act. Applications for consent required statements as to nature, composition
of the effluent and the maximum temperature; the maximum daily quantity
and the highest rate of discharge. A river authority may require detoxification of
a toxic effluent.
1961 The Public Health Act. Part V of the Act brought under control to a large extent
those effluents exempted under the 1937 Public Health (Drainage of Trade
Premises) Act.
1963 The Water Resources Act. The Act required also the consent of the river authorities
as to discharges of toxic liquid waste not made to sewers or river but to an
aquifer by well, borehole or pipe.
1962 & The Town and Country Planning Act. The Acts required inter alia planning
1968 permission before a refuse tip is established or extended or the establishment
or extension of an outfall to river. Planning permission may be refused on account
of the possible toxic effects of the refuse on underground water or contamination
of a foreshore by sewage works effluent.