Protecting our Marine Environment - Environmental Protection - 1.4 Discharge Permits - Submission -

1.4 Discharge Permits within Environmental Protection

Executive Summary

• Environmental Protection regulates polluting discharges to the aquatic environment under the Water Pollution Law, 2000. (since year 2000).
• Approximately 750 permitted discharges are regulated in accordance with Discharge Permits issued under the Water Pollution (Jersey) Law 2000. Approximately, 60 applications need further consideration prior to being determined.
• There are 10 active permits for authorised discharges direct to the marine environment and five are being considered currently.

1. Overview of the Discharge Permit Scheme

The Water Pollution (Jersey) Law 2000 was fully enacted on the 27 November 2000. After the enactment of the Law, any person who wished to make a discharge into controlled waters that would otherwise be in contravention of the Law i.e. it would cause pollution of controlled waters, was required to apply for a Discharge Permit. A person who was already making a discharge into controlled waters when the Law came into force was entitled to a deemed' permit until the application was considered by the Regulator. Where the Regulator wishes itself to make a discharge into controlled waters that would otherwise be in contravention of the Law it would be required to apply for a Discharge Certificate. There are no Discharge Certificates in force at this time.

There are currently approximately 600 domestic discharges permitted, principally for septic tanks, soakaways and sewage treatment plants. Seven applications are outstanding and currently being processed.

There are currently 150 business discharges permitted, 48 deemed permits which need to be considered fully and a further 15 other applications which require processing and consideration. Environmental Protection are prioritising these outstanding applications in terms of potential environmental impact, but are restricted by ongoing resource issues.

2. Activities involved

New applications - Require input, going out to consultation, Gazetting where appropriate, negotiation with applicants, consultations, consideration of all representations during decision making process, writing permits, notice of decisions.

Processing outstanding applications/deemed permits – As above, generally they are outstanding because they require further investigation, site visits and a significant amount of work. Environmental Protection is working through these according to their potential impact on the environment.

Existing permits in force – All permits have a variety of conditions and requirements associated with them including sampling requirements, notifications and report writing by the discharger. There is requirement for processing this information, assessing compliance with conditions, writing reports, monthly/quarterly returns to the discharger. Enforcement action resulting from compliance breaches, preparing of case files where appropriate. Includes any variations to existing permits both by the discharger and the regulator.

3. Discharges to the Marine Environment

The following discharge permits relate to discharges to the marine environment:

DP(B)2000/07/01 - Bellozanne Sewage Treatment Works – Full permit (available on request)

DP(B)2000/07/02 – Pumping Stations - Full composite permit (available on request)

DP(B)2002/04/01 – Bonne Nuit Package Sewage Treatment Plant – Full permit (available on request)

DP(B)2010/03/01 – Energy From Waste Plant – Cooling Water - Full permit (available on request)

DP(B)2010/03/02 - Energy From Waste Plant – Interceptor – Full permit (available on request)

DP(B)2010/03/03 - Energy From Waste Plant – Interceptor – Full Permit (available on request)

DP(B)2000/11/37 – J E Plc Power Station – Cooling Water - Full permit (available on request)

DP(B)2010/04/01 - J E Plc Power Station – Pump house backwash – being considered

DP(B)2010/04/02 - J E Plc Power Station – Pump house interceptor – being considered

DP(B)2000/06/01 – La Collette Yard outfall – Deemed permit – High Priority DP(B)2000/06/02 - La Collette Jetty Head. – Deemed permit – Medium Priority DP(B)2000/12/19 - Oyster Processing plant – no permit – Medium priority DP(B)2000/10/05 - La Rosiere Desalination Plant – Deemed Permit – Low Priority

DP(B)2000/11/10 – Vivier – Deemed permit – Low Priority

DP(B)2000/12/05 – Vivier – Deemed permit – Low priority

DP(B)2001/01/01 – Vivier – no permit – Low priority

Environmental Protection in conjunction with an eminent consultant have recently completed a review of the Bellozanne Sewage Treatment Works discharge permit and shall be carrying out a regulatory variation of that permit in due course. The variation will ensure continued best practice for the regulation

of the UV plant according to revised UK standards. The terms of reference for the review are presented below for information and the full report is attached. Environmental Protection (the regulator) required the following programme of work to be carried out.

1. Review the compliance data and the more recent sampling of the UV plant undertaken by the regulator and Transport and Technical Services (the operator).
2. Discuss the current performance and compliance of the sewage treatment works with the current Discharge Permit with relevant officers from the regulator and the operator.
3. Provide a proposed draft of the review to the Discharge Permit.
4. Discuss and advise the regulator on the practical implementation of any proposed conditions.
5. Provide justification for any proposed changes in the conditions of the Discharge Permit.

4. Budget, manpower and resources considerations

1. Budget: There is no specific budget allocated for the discharge permit regime as a whole. Monitoring costs and consultancy costs to assist with determining the more complex business discharge permits come out of the monitoring budget.
2. Manpower: One principal officer for day-to-day running of the discharge permit regime (the activities of which are described above) with additional assistance when considering the larger outstanding business discharge permits. This approximates to about 30 working days a year.

5. Constraints

1. Budget as above.
2. Manpower: to complete outstanding permits will require significant manpower time as each site is likely to need to be visited, details checked etc.