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50
ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION
CLEAN AIR ACT, 1956
In my Report for the year 1957 I dealt in some detail with the provisions
of the Clean Air Act, 1956 which received the Royal Assent on the 5th July,
1956, but was operative only in part during 1957. By virtue of the Clean Air
Act, 1956 (Appointed Day) Order, 1958, the remaining provisions of the Act were
brought into operation on the 1st June, 1958.
During the year under review action was taken under the following sections
of the Act:-
SECTION 1 (Prohibition of dark smoke from chimneys) makes the emission of
dark smoke from a chimney, including domestic chimneys, an offence. The
emission itself is an offence, and the question of a nuisance being caused and
having to be proved does not arise. (Maximum Penalty is - in the case of a
chimney of a private dwelling £10, and in the case of any other chimney £100),
Defences. (a) Lighting up from a cold furnace:
(b) Some unforeseeable and unavoidable failure of the furnace
or equipment;
(c) The use of unsuitable fuel, suitable fuel being
unobtainable.
(d) The contravention complained of was due to the combination
of two or more of the causes specified in paragraphs
(a) to (c) of this subsection and that the other conditions
specified in those paragraphs are satisfied in
relation to those causes respectively.
Where a defendant seeks to avail himself of the defences (a) and (c) it is
also necessary for him to show that "all practicable steps had been taken to
prevent or minimise the emission of dark smoke".
The provisions of this section apply not only to the chimney of a building,
but also to the chimney serving the furnace of any boiler or industrial plant
attached to a building or for the time being fixed to or installed on any land.
This section came into operation on the 1st June, 1958
Under the provisions of subsection 2 of this section, the Minister of
Housing and Local Government made the Dark Smoke (Permitted Periods) Regula
tions, 1958, which came into operation on the 1st June, 1958. Under these
regulations emissions of dark smoke from any chimney are permitted for not
longer than ten minutes in the aggregate in any period of eight hours, or, if
soot-blowing is carried out within any such period for not longer than 14
minutes in the aggregate of that period These periods are increased in the
case of a chimney serving two or more furnaces Notwithstanding these regulations
(a) the continuous emission of dark smoke caused otherwise than by sootblowing
for a period exceeding four minutes, or (b) the emission of black smoke
for more than two minutes in the aggregate in any period of 30 minutes is an
offence.
One offence under this section was discovered
SECTION 3 (Requirement that new furnaces shall be so far as practicable
smokeless) requires all new furnaces (including domestic installations with a
maximum heating capacity of 55,000 or more B Th,U's per hour) to be capable of
being operated continuously without emitting smoke when burning fuel of a type
for which they were designed. The installation of a new furnace must be
notified to the local authority, and plans and specifications for a new furnace
may be submitted to the local authority for approval. Under the provisions of