16.—(1) The undertaker may use any watercourse or any public sewer or drain for the drainage of water in connection with the carrying out or maintenance of the authorised development and for that purpose may lay down, take up and alter pipes and may, on any land within the Order limits, make openings into, and connections with, the watercourse, public sewer or drain.
(2) Any dispute arising from the making of connections to or the use of a public sewer or drain by the undertaker pursuant to paragraph (1) is to be determined as if it were a dispute under section 106 of the Water Industry Act 1991 M1 (right to communicate with public sewers).
(3) The undertaker must not discharge any water into any watercourse, public sewer or drain except with the consent of the person to whom it belongs; and such consent may be given subject to such terms and conditions as that person may reasonably impose, but must not be unreasonably withheld.
(4) The undertaker must not make any opening into any public sewer or drain except—
(a)in accordance with plans approved by the person to whom the sewer or drain belongs but approval must not be unreasonably withheld; and
(b)where that person has been given the opportunity to supervise the making of the opening.
(5) The undertaker must take such steps as are reasonably practicable to secure that any water discharged into a watercourse or public sewer or drain pursuant to this article is as free as may be practicable from gravel, soil or other solid substance, oil or matter in suspension.
(6) This article does not authorise the entry into controlled waters of any matter whose entry or discharge into controlled waters requires a licence pursuant to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 M2.
(7) In this article—
(a)“public sewer or drain” means a sewer or drain which belongs to the Homes and Communities Agency, the Environment Agency, a harbour authority within the meaning of section 57 of the Harbours Act 1964 M3 (interpretation), an internal drainage board, a joint planning board, a local authority, a National Park Authority, a sewerage undertaker or an urban development corporation; and
(b)other expressions, excluding watercourse, used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991 M4 have the same meaning as in that Act.