The Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

PART I GENERAL

Citation and Commencement

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 and shall come into operation on the 1st April 2007.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations —

“appropriate district council” and “appropriate health and social services board”—

(a)

in relation to a departure authorised under regulation 20 or 21 or an application for any such authorisation, means the district council and the health and social services board, respectively, whose area contains any part of the water supply zone to which the authorisation relates or, in the case of an application, would apply if a departure were authorised in the terms sought;

(b)

in relation to such an event as is mentioned in regulation 34(8), means the district council and the health and social services board, respectively, in whose area the event occurs;

“blending point” means a point at which water originating from two or more sources and treated for the purposes of their supply for regulation 4(1) purposes are combined under conditions that are designed to secure that, after such combination, the requirements of paragraph (2) of regulation 4 are met;

“Chapter III” means Chapter III (quality and sufficiency of supply) of part IV (Water Supply) of the Order;

“departure” means a permitted value outside the prescribed concentration or value(s);

“disinfection” means a process which removes or renders inactive pathogenic micro-organisms so as to satisfy the requirements of Part III in respect of micro-organisms (other than parameters), parasites and the parameters listed in Table A in Schedule 1;

“groundwater” means water contained in underground strata, or in

(a)

a well, borehole or other similar work sunk into underground strata, including any adit or passage constructed in connection with the well, borehole or work for facilitating the collection of water in the well, borehole, or work, or,

(b)

any excavation into underground strata where the level of water in the excavation depends wholly or mainly on water entering it from the strata;

“health and social services board” means a board established under Part III of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972(1);

“indicator parameter” means a parameter listed in Schedule 2;

“the Order” means the Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006;

“parameter” means a property, element, organism or substance listed in the second column of Table A or Table B in Schedule 1, or in Schedule 2, as read, where appropriate, with the notes to Schedule 2 and those Tables;

“pesticides and related products” means—

(a)

any organic insecticide;

(b)

any organic herbicide;

(c)

any organic fungicide;

(d)

any organic nematocide;

(e)

any organic acaricide;

(f)

any organic algicide;

(g)

any organic rodenticide;

(h)

any organic slimacide; and

(i)

any product related to any of (a) to (h) (including any growth regulator), and includes their relevant metabolites, degradation and reaction products;

“prescribed concentration or value”, in relation to any parameter, means the maximum or minimum concentration or value specified in relation to that parameter in Table A or Table B in Schedule 1 as measured by reference to the unit of measurement so specified, and as read, where appropriate, with the notes to those Tables;

“regulation 4(1) purposes”, in relation to the supply of water, means a supply—

(a)

for such domestic purposes as consist in or include, cooking, drinking, food preparation or washing; or

(b)

[for any of those domestic purposes], to premises in which food is produced;

“sampling point” –

(c)

in relation to water supplied from a distribution network, means a point, being a consumer’s tap, that is selected for the purposes of Part IV;

(d)

in relation to water supplied from a tanker, means the point at which the water emerges from the tanker;

“specification”, in relation to an indicator parameter, means the concentration, value or state, shown as applicable to that parameter in Schedule 2 as measured by reference to the unit of measurement so shown;

“state”, in relation to an indicator parameter, means the state specified in relation to that parameter in Schedule 2 as measured by reference to the unit of measurement so specified;

“supply point” means a blending point, service reservoir, treatment works or other point, not being a sampling point, which the Department authorises for the purposes of regulation 6;

“underground strata” means strata subjacent to the surface of any land, and any reference to water contained in any underground strata is a reference to water so contained otherwise than in a public sewer, pipe, reservoir, tank or underground works contained in any such strata;

“water supply zone”, in relation to a water undertaker and a year, means an area designated for that year by that water undertaker in accordance with regulation 3; and

“year” means calendar year.

(2) Other expressions used both in these Regulations and in Council Directive 98/83/EC (on the quality of water intended for human consumption)(2) have the same meaning in these Regulations as they have in that Directive.

(3) Subject to paragraph (4), references in these Regulations to a service reservoir are references to any structure, other than a structure at a treatment works, in which a reserve of water that has been treated with a view to complying with the requirements of regulation 4 is contained and stored for the purpose of meeting a variable demand for the supply of water.

(4) Where references in these Regulations to a service reservoir would, but for this paragraph, include references to a structure comprising more than one compartment—

(a) each compartment which has its own water inlet and water outlet and is not connected hydraulically to any other compartment shall be treated as a single service reservoir;

(b) the compartments that are connected hydraulically shall be treated as a single service reservoir; and

(c) unless all of the compartments are connected hydraulically, the structure as a whole shall not be treated as a service reservoir.

(1)

S.I 1972/1265 (N.I. 14)

(2)

O.J. L330, 5.12.98, p. 32