9.—(1) The undertaker may use any watercourse or drain for the drainage of water in connection with the construction or maintenance of the authorised works 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, or drain.
(2) .The undertaker shall not discharge any water into any watercourse, 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 shall not be unreasonably withheld.
(3) The undertaker shall not make any opening into any drain except—
(a)in accordance with plans approved by the person to whom the drain belongs, but such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld; and
(b)where that person has been given the opportunity to supervise the making of the opening.
(4) The undertaker shall not, in the exercise of the powers conferred by this article, damage or interfere with the bed or banks of any watercourse forming part of a main river.
(5) The undertaker shall take such steps as are reasonably practicable to secure that any water discharged into a watercourse or drain under the powers conferred by 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 is prohibited by section 85(1), (2) or (3) of the Water Resources Act 1991(1).
(7) If a person who receives an application for consent under paragraph (2) or approval under paragraph (3)(a) fails to notify the undertaker of that person’s decision before the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the date on which the application was made, that person shall be deemed to have granted consent or given approval, as the case may be.
(8) In this article—
(a)“drain” (“traen”) means a drain which belongs to the Environment Agency, an internal drainage board, a local authority or the Welsh Ministers; and
(b)other expressions, excluding watercourses, used both in this article and in the Water Resources Act 1991 have the same meaning as in that Act.