Pollution of the water environment

Water pollution is an important concept as it may be one of the reasons for land being identified as contaminated by a local authority.

The following guidance documents have been produced to provide an outline of SEPA’s approach to the assessment of significant pollution of the water environment. They are the basis for site specific advice that SEPA will provide when consulted by Local Authorities:

Water pollution arising from land containing chemical contaminants (2012) (1mb)
The assessment of inputs of hazardous substances into groundwater is further described in SEPA Position Statement PS-10-01 (3.81mb)
Contaminated land and the requirements of the Groundwater Daughter Directive - interim advice (12kb)

The following supporting guidance documents are referenced in the above documents:

WAT-SG-53: Environmental Standards for Discharges to Surface Waters (231kb)
WAT-SG-02: Modelling Methods for Surface Water Discharges (1.19mb)
WAT-SG-05: Point Source Discharge Constituents (152kb)
WAT-SG-11: Modelling Discharges to Coastal and Transitional Waters (199kb)