Apply for a permit to discharge domestic sewage

If your discharge of domestic sewage can’t be registered with us as exempt, you will need an Environmental Permit.

What is domestic sewage?

Domestic sewage includes waste water from:

toilets
personal washing, showering and bathing
household washing using domestic detergents
cooking at home for family and friends
commercial cooking for sale directly to consumers, such as a restaurant or sandwich bar – includes consumption on and off site
washing dishes and cooking equipment, on a scale comparable to domestic cooking, after using them on the premises
swimming pools at homes and hotels where they are provided free for residents and when the effluent is treated and discharged in combination with other domestic sewage effluent

Effluent from other sources is not domestic sewage, for example:

chemical toilets – at residential or commercial sites
washing at commercial premises of items received from off site – for example campsite launderettes open to non-residents, high street launderettes, centralised laundries for hotel chains
commercial cooking – food processing or cooking and packaging food for sale off site
municipal or commercial swimming pools

Are you in a sewered area?

Before applying for a permit you must check that you are not within an area with a public sewer. The use of private domestic sewage treatment in a sewered area is only permissible if connection to the public sewer is not feasible.

For more information see our webpage on ‘Private sewage treatment in an area with a public sewer’

Apply for an Environmental Permit to dispose of domestic sewage

If your discharge is for:

less than 15 cubic metres per day (15,000 litres) to ground via a drainage field
less than 20 cubic metres per day to surface water

you will need to complete our online application Form B6.5

Complete form B6.5

If your discharge is for more than 15 cubic metres per day (15,000 litres) to ground or more than 20 cubic metres per day to surface water you will need to complete our online application form B6

Complete form B6

If you need advice before you make an application for a permit please use our pre-application advice service

Fees and charges

Application fees

You will need to pay an application fee for this Environmental Permit which differs depending on the volume you’ll be discharging and where your treated effluent is being discharged.

If you discharge to surface water (this means rivers, ditches, lakes, ponds, canals, estuaries or the sea) the application fee is:

For discharges of less than 5000 litres (5 cubic metres) per day: £3,731
For discharges between 5000 and 20,000 litres (5 to 20 cubic metres) per day: £4,094
For discharges of 20,000 litres (20 cubic metres) or more per day: £5,778

If you discharge to ground (this means making a discharge to a drainage field or infiltration system) the application fee is:

For discharges of less than 5000 litres (5 cubic metres) per day - £3,478
For discharges between 5000 and 15,000 (5 to 15 cubic metres per day) litres per day - £4,293
For discharges of 15,000 litres (15 cubic metres) or more per day - £5,778

Habitats Assessments fee

If your discharge is near a recognised European habitat site we will need to carry out a Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) as part of assessing your permit application. This will require payment of an additional fee of £2,817.

For more information on when these assessments may be needed please see our web-page ‘Habitat Regulations Assessment for your Environmental Permit’.

Environmental Risk Assessments fee

If your discharge into surface water contains hazardous chemicals and elements we may need to complete an Environmental Risk Assessment as part of assessing your permit application. This will require payment of an additional fee of £2,817.

For more information on these hazardous chemicals and elements and when these assessments maybe needed please see our webpage ‘Environmental Risk Assessments for water discharges’

Applications with insufficient detail to progress

If we return your application due to insufficient detail and so are unable to progress past the

application accepted stage, we will retain 10% of the application fee. We will only return an application after first giving you an opportunity to supply missing information.

If you decide to withdraw your permit application

If you decide to withdraw your permit application after we have accepted it, we will retain 100% of the application fee. If you decide to withdraw before we’ve progressed from the application accepted stage, we will retain 10% of the application fee.

Annual fee

There will be an ongoing annual charge for discharges over five cubic metres per day to cover our costs of maintaining and reviewing your permit, ensuring that you comply with the permit conditions and monitoring the water body that you discharge into.

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