Private Water Supplies

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Pollution Control

Private water supplies are any supplies that are not provided by a statutory water undertaker or a licensed water supplier, such as Dwr Cymru Welsh Water. There are about 170 commercial premises and 839 domestic premises in Pembrokeshire using private water supplies.

The Private Water Supplies (Wales) Regulations 2010 came into force on 4^th February 2010 (the Regulations). The Regulations apply to all private water supplies providing 10m³/day or more; or serving 50 or more persons and to all private water supplies, irrespective of their size, that are part of a commercial or public activity such as bed and breakfast establishments. These are referred to as ‘large supplies' and there are approximately 170 within Pembrokeshire. Private water supplies providing less than 10m³/day; or serving less than 50 persons, provided that they are not part of a commercial or public activity, are referred to as ‘small supplies'.

All private water supplies can pose a threat to health unless they are properly protected and treated. You may not be able to tell if your water is safe as contamination may not show by smell, taste or colour of the water.

You should find out as much as you can about your private water supply including;

The Regulations place a duty on local authorities to carry out a risk assessment within five years and to monitor regularly all large supplies in accordance with specified frequencies to determine compliance with the standards. There are two types of monitoring for large supplies - ‘check monitoring' which is carried out relatively frequently for a few very important parameters and ‘audit monitoring' which is carried out less frequently for the remaining parameters.

Users of a supply to a single dwelling are exempt from these new Regulations but can ask the local authority to carry out a risk assessment and/or monitoring and, if they do so, the local authority must comply with the request.

All private water supplies, large and small, are required to meet the standards in the Regulations. When the monitoring carried out by a local authority detects a failure to meet a standard, the local authority must carry out an investigation to determine the cause of the failure and, unless it is trivial and unlikely to recur, then ensure that appropriate action is taken to remedy the cause so that the standard is met.

A private distribution system (this is a mains water onward distribution system) usually conveys water to individual premises within a site, for example, holiday campsites, private estates etc. In such cases the site owner or manager, not the water undertaker, is responsible for the supply which is provided to premises through a private distribution system and for the quality of the water supply at consumer's taps. The number of private distribution systems in Pembrokeshire is still to be determined.

A local authority may charge for certain activities to recover the reasonable cost of providing the service subject to the following maximum charges specified in the Regulations:

Risk assessment (each assessment) (note - charge not made for the first 5 years)	£500
Sampling each visit * (note - analysis fees are extra)	£100
Investigation (each investigation)	£100
Granting an Authorisation (each authorisation)	£100
Analysing a sample- taken under regulation 10: taken during check monitoring: taken during audit monitoring:	£25 £100 £500

The Welsh Government (WG) has offered a grant of £100 per risk assessment to local authorities for the first 5 years. Local authorities will not therefore charge private water supply users for risk assessments while the scheme is in place.

Risk assessment (each assessment) (note - charge not made for the first 5 years)	£500
Sampling visit (note - analysis fees are extra)	£100
Investigation (each investigation)	£100
Granting an Authorisation (each authorisation)	£100
Analysing a sample- taken under regulation 10: taken during check monitoring: taken during audit monitoring:	£25 £100 £500

Activity	Maximum charge permitted	PCC charging scheme	Comments
Risk Assessment	£500	£500	WG grant for 5 years
Sampling	£100	£100/visit	Cabinet decision 4/10/10
Investigation	£100	£100	Cabinet decision 4/10/10
Authorisation	£100	£100	Cabinet decision 4/10/10

Activity	Maximum charge permitted	PCC charging scheme	Comments
Under Regulation 10 (domestic)	£25	£25	Supply <10/m3/day or <50 people and domestic usage only
Check Monitoring (commercial Supplies)	£100	£80.31 (to March 2012)	Check monitoring is carried out to ensure that water complies with the standards
Audit Monitoring (commercial supplies)	£500	Dependent on laboratory costs for specific parameters Typical example £85 until March 2012	Additional parameters sampled dependant on the risks associated with each supply

Any queries on Private Water Supplies please contact the Pollution Control Team.

Pollution Control

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