Discharging to a watercourse
Before discharging to a watercourse, you must investigate if it is possible to discharge to land via a soakaway.
Water flow
You must not discharge to a watercourse that has a very low flow of water or dries up at certain times of the year. There needs to be enough water in a river, stream, or burn to properly dilute any sewage that discharges into it to prevent pollution.
If the flow of water is low at your discharge points, you should discharge to a larger watercourse or a mound soakaway.
Drinking water supply
You must not discharge upstream and within 1.5km of a water supply used for human consumption (i.e. drinking water). Contact your local authority Environmental Health department or speak to your neighbours to find out the location of any water supplies taken from the watercourse you are discharging into.
If there are water supplies downstream and within 1.5km of your discharge, you should relocate the discharge or discharge to mound soakaway. If you can't do this, contact us by emailing the Water Permitting Team.
Partial soakaway
If discharging to a watercourse, you should consider installing a partial soakaway. In some cases we will require you to install one and our online application service will tell you if this is required or not.
A partial soakaway is a soakaway with a high-level overflow into a watercourse. Treated sewage flows through the partial soakaway, with some of it filtering into the surrounding land. The final discharge is from the overflow into the watercourse. This allows sewage to soak into the ground when the soil is dry and the flow in the watercourse is low.
If you use a partial soakaway, it should normally be located within 10 metres of the watercourse you are discharging into.
Secondary treatment
Unless the flow in the watercourse is high, secondary treatment of your sewage will normally be needed to discharge to a watercourse.
Bathing waters and shellfish waters
If your discharge is near a bathing or shellfish water, you will normally need to treat the sewage to reduce the bacteria before it is discharged. Our online registration service will work out if your discharge is near a bathing or shellfish water.
If the service indicates that your discharge point is near a shellfish harvesting area, you should contact us by emailing the Water Permitting Team.
Our staff will carry out further assessment to determine if enhanced treatment is needed.
You can then apply for a registration to discharge by completing an application form and emailing it to our Registry Team.
There are various treatment options to reduce bacteria including installing a package treatment plant or a septic tank in conjunction with a propriety filtration system that uses bio-fibrous material. For example, the bio-fibrous material could be coir or a peat free substitute.