Water Pollution in UK Law

Leading Cases
  • Cambridge Water Company v Eastern Counties Leather
    • House of Lords
    • 09 décembre 1993

    I understand the position to have been that any spillage would have been expected to evaporate rapidly in the air, and would not have been expected to seep through the floor of the building into the soil below. The only harm that could have been foreseen from a spillage was that somebody might have been overcome by fumes from a spillage of a significant quantity.

    Of course, although liability for nuisance has generally been regarded as strict, at least in the case of a defendant who has been responsible for the creation of a nuisance, even so that liability has been kept under control by the principle of reasonable user — the principle of give and take as between neighbouring occupiers of land, under which "

    But it by no means follows that the defendant should be held liable for damage of a type which he could not reasonably foresee; and the development of the law of negligence in the past sixty years points strongly towards a requirement that such foreseeability should be a prerequisite of liability in damages for nuisance, as it is of liability in negligence.

  • R an Taisce (The National Trust for Ireland) v The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change NNB Generation Company Ltd, The Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, Ireland and Another (Interested Parties)
    • Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court)
    • 20 décembre 2013

    In my judgment there is no reason that precludes the Secretary of State from being able to have regard to, and rely upon, the existence of a stringently operated regulatory regime for future control. Because of its existence, he was satisfied, on a reasonable basis, that he had sufficient information to enable him to come to a final decision on the development consent application.

  • Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs v Feakins and another
    • Chancery Division
    • 26 novembre 2004

    iii) Although the words "suitable in that behalf" are capable of being read objectively, the context in which they appear (that of a power exercisable by the Minister) gives some margin of judgement to the Minister in the selection of the site. This margin of judgement may be important if, as is theoretically possible, it is necessary to balance conflicting desiderata.

  • Transco Plc v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
    • House of Lords
    • 19 novembre 2003

    It must be shown that the defendant has done something which he recognised, or judged by the standards appropriate at the relevant place and time, he ought reasonably to have recognised, as giving rise to an exceptionally high risk of danger or mischief if there should be an escape, however unlikely an escape may have been thought to be.

  • Empress Car Company (Abertillery) Ltd v National Rivers Authority
    • House of Lords
    • 05 février 1998

    These examples show that one cannot give a common sense answer to a question of causation for the purpose of attributing responsibility under some rule without knowing the purpose and scope of the rule. Does the rule impose a duty which requires one to guard against, or makes one responsible for, the deliberate acts of third persons? If so, it will be correct to say, when loss is caused by the act of such a third person, that it was caused by the breach of duty.

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Legislation
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Books & Journal Articles
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Law Firm Commentaries
  • Application Of Integrated Pollution Prevention And Control To Waste Water Treatment
    • Mondaq United Kingdom
  • The cost of non-compliance
    • JD Supra United Kingdom
    Thames Water has received a record £20.3 million fine for water pollution. The fine is ten times higher than the previous largest fine of £2 million (given to Southern Water in December 2016).
    .... Thames Water has received a record £20.3 million fine for water pollution. The fine is ......
  • Monster Cruise Ships Menace Venice
    • LexBlog United Kingdom
    The UK’s Mail Online newspaper has some interesting photographs today regarding the ongoing protests by environmental groups in Italy who are trying to protect the beautiful city of Venice from the...
    ...... trying to protect the beautiful city of Venice from the effects of water pollution, air emissions and erosion of historical building by traffic ......
  • Contaminated Land: Cleaning up the Statutory Guidance in England
    • JD Supra United Kingdom
    Revised Statutory Guidance in relation to the contaminated land regime, and regulations amending the definition of when land will be considered to be contaminated, came into force on 6 April 2012. ...
    ......("SPOSH") being caused to human health or the environment; or  Pollution of controlled waters is being or is likely to be caused. So, technically, it is possible to argue that any water pollution is sufficient to satisfy the second limb of the definition of ......
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