Discharge Permit Review Project

The aim of this project is to review all existing environmental permits for discharge to ground across the Kent, South London, and East Sussex area, with a view to assessing compliance and risk to the groundwater environment, as well as establishing priorities for any further work. The Environment Agency has appointed an external contractor to review all existing permitted discharges to ground in KSL, with the aim of improving our understanding of their spatial context and potential impacts (including cumulative) on groundwater. The project will consist of three mains tasks (details below): 1. High-level initial data collection and review of all existing data, to inform a priority list, and produce summary data and visual representation(s) of the areas posing a potential pollution risk. 2. Technical review of the prioritised permits/areas to: a. Screen out discharges not likely to be causing significant pollution of groundwater. b. Identify discharges/clusters of discharges potentially causing significant pollution and therefore requiring further investigation. 3. Produce a final report of the project work, outcomes and recommendations to particularly include: a. Data on non-compliance with existing permits. b. Data on scale of potential pollution impacts from NMD, including cumulative impacts. c. Data on number of NMD (permitted and not) properties in Safeguard Zones.