Environmental guidance for your business in Northern Ireland & Scotland
Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are a natural approach to managing drainage in and around properties and other developments.
SuDS work by slowing and holding back the water that runs off from a site, allowing natural processes to break down pollutants.
Source control measures deal with run-off at, or close to, the surface where rainfall lands.
Site control measures manage the surface water run-off from larger areas, such as part of a housing estate, major roads or business parks.
The run-off from larger areas can be channelled to a site control measure using swales (shallow drainage channels) or filter drains.
Regional control measures downstream of source and site controls deal with the gathered run-off from a large area. These systems use the same principles as smaller scale SuDS, but can cope with larger volumes of water.
Rainwater that passes through small SuDS can feed into larger SuDS which deal with the gathered run-off from a wide area. It is best to connect the flows between SuDS components with swales, filter drains or ditches and avoid the use of pipes.
When you design a sustainable drainage system you should consider including a number of connected components. The more likely the runoff is to be contaminated the more stages of treatment should be included. This is known as the treatment train.
You can include source control measures to capture and treat runoff close to where it lands. You can connect a number of source controls to a site control measure such as a detention basin. The overflow from site control measures can be finally treated in a regional control SUDS measure before final discharge to the water environment.
The benefits of SuDS are:
You can use the following SuDS techniques:
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency has published a short guide to the duty of care responsibilities including advice and information for waste producers, carriers and those accepting, storing and treating waste.
https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/publications/waste-duty-care-responsibilities
Any person intending to alter the use or management of areas of uncultivated or semi-natural land must obtain prior approval from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).
Read more on the DAERA website
The NetRegs team at SEPA, in partnership with The Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and a number of industry bodies have produced 9 new GPPs to replace out of date PPGs. More are coming! Check the available topics
New guidance for Start-ups, charities and community projects
http://www.netregs.org.uk/environmental-topics/environmental-management/first-steps-guidance-for-new-starts-projects-and-charities/
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