20.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4) 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 inspect, 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 by the undertaker pursuant to paragraph (1) is determined as if it were a dispute under section 106 (right to communicate with public sewers) of the Water Industry Act 1991(1).
(3) The undertaker must 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 must not be unreasonably withheld or delayed.
(4) The undertaker must not carry out any works to any public sewer or drain pursuant to paragraph (1) except—
(a)in accordance with plans approved by the person to whom the sewer or drain belongs, but such approval must not be unreasonably withheld; and
(b)where that person has been given the opportunity to supervise the making of the opening.
(5) The undertaker must not, in carrying out or maintaining works pursuant to this article, damage or interfere with the bed or banks of, or construct any works within any watercourse forming part of a main river, or within 16 metres of a tidally influenced main river without the prior written consent of the Environment Agency or Natural Resources Wales as appropriate.
(6) The undertaker must, unless otherwise authorised under the provisions of this Order or any environmental permit relating to the discharge of water in connection with the authorised development, 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 entry into controlled waters of any matter whose entry or discharge into controlled waters is prohibited by regulation 12 (requirement for environmental permit) of the 2016 Regulations.
(8) In this article—
(a)“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain which belongs to a sewerage undertaker, the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, an internal drainage board or a local authority; and
(b)other expressions, excluding watercourse, used both in this article and in the 2016 Regulations have the same meaning as in those Regulations.
(9) If a person who receives an application for consent or approval fails to notify the undertaker of a decision within 42 days of receiving an application for consent under paragraph (3) or approval under paragraph (4)(a) that person is deemed to have granted consent or given approval, as the case may be.
1991 c. 56. Section 106 was amended by sections 43(2) and 35(8)(a) and paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 to the Competition and Service (Utilities) Act 1992 (c.43) and sections 99(2), (4), (5)(a), (5)(b), (5)(c) and 36(2) of the Water Act 2003 (c. 37) and section 32, Schedule 3, paragraph 16(1) of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 c. 29.