11. Direct discharge of pollutants into groundwater

This section describes how the Water Framework Directive (WFD) Regulations prohibit the direct discharge of hazardous substances into groundwater.

Direct discharges of hazardous substances into groundwater are prohibited by the WFD Regulations which is put into effect through the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 and other legislation noted under section 2 xiii above, subject to certain specific exemptions laid down in the regulations. These exemptions essentially allow a permit to be potentially granted for a direct discharge of pollutant substances to groundwater but only where the discharge does not compromise any of the other WFD Regulations objectives to prevent pollution of groundwater, for example the status of the groundwater body is not reduced and there is no significant rising trend of pollutants that needs to be reversed.