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CLA Wins Review of Septic Tank Regulations Important Amendment The Government and the Environment Agency have agreed to review rules which threatened hefty fines for thousands of households in rural areas which failed to comply with new regulations relating to septic tanks. However, CLA surveyor, Charlotte Sealy, says that current EA advice is confusing and not explicit as to what part of the process has actually been suspended. The regulations - due to come into force in January 2012 - required everybody with a septic tank which discharged either to soakaway drains or to water courses to either apply for a permit to discharge or for an exemption from the permit. All septic tanks also had to be registered with the Environment Agency by that date.
But the Country Land and Business Association discovered that a high proportion of rural householders knew nothing about the change - had received no information about new rules or been given any notification about the new requirement to register private septic tanks.
CLA South West Regional Surveyor, Charlotte Sealy, said both Defra and the Environment Agency had failed to communicate the changes to householders and, as a result, many were at risk of being in breach of a law which carries a maximum fine of £50,000 plus a possible term of imprisonment. The issue had been further complicated because, although the changes were presented as a straightforward registration process, in reality thousands of households could have been required to install a sealed tank or new system costing many thousands of pounds.
"People were concerned and unsure about what the new requirements were and exactly what they had to do to comply with the law."
The CLA, she said, had sought reassurances that people with septic tanks would not be treated heavy-handedly by the Environment Agency because they had not been made aware of the changes. Difficulties with the Environment Agency website meant that even people who understood the changes found themselves unable to comply - so were still facing the prospect of a fine through no fault of their own.
"This is gold-plating the rules in a way that could criminalise many people in rural communities simply because they have not understood – or not been made aware of – this new level of legislation.
"Current EA advice is confusing and not explicit as to what part of the process has actually been suspended."
Defra has agreed that the requirement for registration for small domestic, properly maintained, sewage systems which are not causing pollution and which discharge less than two cubic metres a day, the equivalent of nine people living in a single property, has been suspended - but importantly discharge to ground within Source Protection Zones has not.
Source Protected Zones are areas with restrictions to protect drinking water, for example, land above an aquifer.
"We have been campaigning – at regional and national level - for a review and for an immediate extension to the registration process – so we are pleased that Defra has now agreed to that review and that the Environment Agency has announced that, for some properties at least, the registration process has been suspended during the review period.
"At a time when we are supposed to be reducing red tape, it makes no sense to make people living in a small or modest domestic property jump through these bureaucratic hoops - and we hope that this review will recognise that and introduce a level of differentiation within these rules which currently does not exist," she said.
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Contact Charlotte Sealy MSc MRICS
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