New drainage legislation to have big impact

The Drainage (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) SR 2006/34 are due to come into force on 20 March 2006, and will replace the previous Regulations from 2001. They continue to require the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in the execution of drainage works and schemes, canal schemes and marine works, to carry out an environmental impact assessment to determine whether they can proceed with the works in question.

However, a number of changes have been made to the 2001 Regulations:

• there are now clearer provisions on the basis on which proposed works are exempt from the requirements of the Regulations;
• the Departments which must be formally consulted are clarified;
• more detail is given on the information which must provided to other EEA states and in public notices;
• a variety of provisions have been included to further provide the general public with relevant information.