Introduction

1. This consultation paper seeks your views on the content of the Regulations which the Government proposes to make to implement the provisions of the amended EC Directive on environmental impact assessment where those provisions apply to certain water resource projects. The draft Regulations appended to this consultation paper are intended to enshrine the requirements for environmental impact assessment into the abstraction and impounding licensing provisions of the current water resources legislation.

Background

2. EC Directive 85/337/EEC came into force in 1988. The main aim of the Directive is to ensure that the authority giving consent for a particular project has enough information to enable it to make its decision in full knowledge of any likely significant effects on the environment. The Directive sets out a procedure to be followed for certain types of project before they can be given consent. This procedure - known as environmental impact assessment (EIA) - is a means of drawing together, in a systematic way, a quantitative and qualitative assessment of a project's likely main environmental effects. It allows the results to be presented in a way which enables the importance of the predicted effects, and the scope for reducing them, to be properly evaluated by the public and the relevant decision-making body before it makes its decision.

3. EC Directive 97/11/EC, which amends the original Directive, comes into effect on 14 March 1999. It extends the range of projects to which the Directive applies to include groundwater abstraction, artificial recharge of groundwater, or the transfer of water resources between river basins (excluding the transfer of piped drinking water). Where such projects exceed specific thresholds, EIA will now be mandatory. Those below the thresholds will need EIA if the Environment Agency determines that they are likely to have significant effects on the environment. Where planning permission is required for a project involving water resources, the need for EIA is linked to the planning process. However, where no planning consent is required, the need for EIA will, by virtue of these proposed Regulations, be linked to the need to obtain an abstraction or impounding licence from the Environment Agency.

4. The Government has already consulted (in July 1997) on the general principles for implementing the amended Directive. Subsequent consultation took place in December 1997 setting out more detailed proposals for refining the way in which the need for EIA is determined. More recently, consultation took place in July 1998 on draft Regulations for implementing EIA through the Town and Country Planning system.

Proposed Water Resources Regulations

5. The proposed Regulations set out the procedural steps for merging the requirements for EIA into the existing procedures for abstraction and impounding licence applications to the Environment Agency.

6. Certain water resource projects which are likely to have significant effects on the environment, as a result of factors such as their nature, size or location, must be subject to EIA. These projects are listed in Schedule 1 to the Regulations. Projects of the type listed in Schedule 2 must be subject to EIA whenever they are likely to have significant effects on the environment. On the basis of those of the selection criteria in Schedule 3 which are relevant in any given case, the Environment Agency will determine whether a licence application for a Schedule 2 project requires EIA.

7. Applications to the Environment Agency for abstraction or impounding licences must therefore be accompanied by:

(i) a determination by the Environment Agency that the project is not a relevant project for the purpose of the Regulations and so does not require EIA; or

(ii) an Environmental Statement (see paragraph 9 below).

A request for a determination as to whether EIA is required can be made in advance of the application being submitted.

8. The proposed Regulations provide for all determinations of whether or not EIA is required to be made publicly available.

9. Where EIA is required, the applicant must provide environmental information in an 'Environmental Statement'. This document (or series of documents) must contain the information specified in the Regulations. An applicant may ask the Agency for their opinion as to what information should be included in the Statement. If requested by the applicant, certain public bodies (the 'consultation bodies') must make any relevant information in their possession available to the applicant for the purposes of preparing the Environmental Statement.

10. When an Environmental Statement is submitted with a licence application, it must be publicised, and the public and the consultation bodies must be given an opportunity to comment on it. A copy of the Statement must also be sent to the Secretary of State, who will consider whether the project is likely to have significant effects on any other Member State. Where the Statement does not contain all the specified information, the Agency can ask the applicant to submit further information. Again, any such information must be publicised.

11. When deciding whether to grant a licence for an application which is accompanied by an Environmental Statement, the Agency must take account of the information in the Statement and any representations made by the consultation bodies or the public. Provision is also made for advertising the public availability of decisions on such applications.

Disclosure of responses to consultation

12. Details of responses received in response to this consultation paper may be disclosed, and respondents will be identified, unless the information relates to a particular person or business. In such a case details will be disclosed in an anonymised form unless the person involved consents to their being fully disclosed. You should identify any such information of this type and indicate whether or not you or the other person involved consent to its being fully disclosed.

Timescale for comments

13. Comments on the proposals outlined in this consultation paper and set out in detail in the accompanying draft Regulations are requested by Wednesday 17 February 1999. Comments should be sent to:

Keith Bates
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
Zone 3/H18
Ashdown House
123 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6DE
E-mail: wsr.doe@dial.pipex.com

14. A list of those bodies to which this consultation paper has been sent is at Annex A.

Draft regulations
(.pdf - 35kb)