PRIVATE WATER SUPPLY REGULATIONS

The term ‘private water supply’ is used to describe the use of water from a private source. This could be from a well, borehole, stream, river, spring, rainwater capture, etc.

Various authorities have an interest in such water supplies for regulatory purposes. M&D Drilling are well practised in assisting you to comply with the regulations. When we construct new boreholes or treat other types of water supplies, we provide the necessary documents to the relevant authorities or yourself to assist in compliance.

Below you will find some relevant information on this topic:

The independent drinking water inspectorate oversees water supplies.

Consent for drilling a borehole, where required, is sought for via the Environment Agency.

It is a legal requirement to notify ‘British Geological Survey’ of the construction information for new boreholes.

Boreholes must be constructed to prevent groundwater contamination. Heavy fines can be applied to poorly constructed or maintained boreholes that result in such contamination, including the resulting costs of cleaning up the contamination. We only construct boreholes where steel casing is cementitiously grouted in place to ensure compliance.

Where a borehole is permitted, up to 20,000 litres/day may be extracted without seeking additional consent for abstraction.

Local authorities act as the regulators for private water supplies.

Each local authority must carry out a risk assessment of each private water supply system in its area at least every five years.

The Regulations do not require relevant persons to register private supplies in their areas. However, where a local authority does become aware of any supply that it was previously unaware of, it must add it to its records. We recommend that you notify your local authority of any new private water supply that is intended for public consumption.

Water used for food production or intended for public consumption must be regularly sampled.

Legislation that applies to private water supplies (at time of web page construction):

The Private Water Supplies (England) Regulations 2016

The Private Water Supplies (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2018

The Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999

Council Directive (98/83/EC) on the quality of water for human consumption

ISO/IEC 17024 private water supply sampling procedure legislation.

M&D Drilling accepts no responsibility for ensuring that all relevant and current legislation is listed.