The Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (Wales) Regulations 2009

Appeals against liability to remediate

19.—(1) A person served with notification under regulation 18 may notify the Welsh Ministers that that person intends to appeal against that notification.

(2) Notice of appeal must be served on the Welsh Ministers within 28 days of service of the notification under regulation 18 unless the time limit is extended by the Welsh Ministers.

(3) The grounds of appeal are—

(a) the operator’s activity was not a cause of the environmental damage;

(b) the enforcing authority has acted unreasonably in deciding that the damage is environmental damage;

(c) the environmental damage resulted from compliance with an instruction from a public authority (except an instruction relating to an emission or incident caused by the operator’s own activities);

(d) the responsible operator was not at fault or negligent and the environmental damage was caused by an emission or event expressly authorised by, and fully in accordance with the conditions of a permit listed in Schedule 3;

(e) the responsible operator was not at fault or negligent and the environmental damage was caused by an emission or activity or any manner of using a product in the course of an activity that the operator demonstrates was not considered likely to cause environmental damage according to the state of scientific and technical knowledge at the time when the emission was released or the activity took place;

(f) the environmental damage was the result of an act of a third party and occurred despite the fact that the responsible operator took all appropriate safety measures.

(4) Paragraph 3(e) does not apply in relation to the deliberate release of genetically modified organisms.

(5) Schedule 5 contains procedures for the appeal.

(6) The person deciding the appeal may confirm or quash the notice.