New septic tank regulations from 1st January

Under new regulations, changes to septic tank rules will be coming into effect from the 1st January 2020.

Septic tanks are quite common in rural properties, most homeowners find them an easy solution to the problem of dealing with waste water and sewage where no mains drainage is available – so long as they are regularly emptied and maintained.

However, new rules were introduced in 2015 which meant that some property owners were required to upgrade their systems, if they hadn't already, within two years.

The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2014 came into force on 1 January 2015 and created General Binding Rules (GBRs) for septic tanks or small sewage treatment plants for domestic use.

The rules are designed to reduce the level of pollution from sewage in the nation’s watercourses. As such, the government is seeking to end the practice of septic tanks discharging directly to a local watercourse, such as a river or stream. Anyone with a septic tank discharging into a watercourse must replace it or upgrade it by 1 January 2020, or sooner if the property is sold before this date, or if the Environment Agency (EA) finds that it is causing pollution.

Systems can be replaced by:

• Connecting to a mains sewer (where available)
• Installing a drainage field (infiltration system) so that the septic tank discharges into the ground or
• Replacing with a small sewage treatment plant
• In exceptional circumstances, a permit can be applied for to allow discharge to surface water
• Septic tank conversion units can be used to upgrade an existing surface water discharging septic tank, but a permit is required for this and evidence must be provided that it will treat to the equivalent standard as a sewage treatment plant

It is the operators of septic tanks and small sewage treatment plants that are responsible for GBR compliance. The operator may either be the owner of the property/land where the septic tank/sewage treatment plant is located/used; the user (even if the system is located on a neighbour’s land) or the tenant/leaseholder where there is written agreement with the owner of the system explaining what maintenance must be carried out in order to comply with the new regulations.

Additional rules for new discharges from a treatment system installed on or after 1st January 2015.

These apply if there was a discharge to surface before 1st January 2015 which you wish to change to discharge to ground water (or vice versa) or if there was a discharge to ground before 1st January 2015 and you wish to install a new drainage pipe which discharges more than 10m away from the existing one.

In these cases the following steps must be taken:

1. If any part of the building your treatment plant serves is within 30m of a public sewer, the EA will not allow a new discharge from a sewage treatment plant. This is multiplied by the number of properties e.g. 90m for three properties.
2. If there is a good reason that you cannot access this sewer e.g. river/hill or if the discharge is within 500m of a designated sensitive area e.g. Special Area of Conservation or Ramsar site, 200m of an aquatic local nature reserve of 50m from a chalk river or aquatic local wildlife site, apply for a permit.
3. Apply for planning permission and Building Regulations approval to install a new sewage treatment plant.
4. New discharges to ditches or surface water are only allowed if there is sufficient all-year round flow. The Environment Agency will advise.

The CON29DW search report from Geodesys will advise when a property is known to NOT be connected to the mains sewerage and drains, therefore suggesting that an alternative arrangement is in place.

If that alternative arrangement is a Septic Tank or sewage treatment plant, then the status of that arrangement must be checked in line with these new regulations to avoid potentially disruptive and costly actions being required by law.