Drainage of surface water (FOI)

Request

A few years ago the IHE Dept (or whatever it was then called) carried out a survey to ensure that surface water was not being routed into the main sewer. Some property owners, as a result of this survey, had to make alternative arrangements for disposal of surface water. I note that some recent building applications (notably P2022 / 0086) continue to assume that surface water may be routed into the foul sewer. Please explain the policy for disposal of rain water falling on to private driveways, roofs of houses and other hardened surfaces.

Response

The department's policy for dealing with surface water is on-site disposal.

With regard to planning applications and drainage requirements, Article 13 of the Drainage (Jersey) Law 2002 requires the separation of foul and surface water for all new developments. Each site is assessed on an individual basis depending on the existing public sewer infrastructure in that area. Infrastructure Housing and Environment (IHE) are, wherever possible, trying to increase the volume of surface water that is diverted away from the foul sewer network.

Further information can be accessed using the following links:

Drainage (Jersey) Law 2005 (jerseylaw.je)

Planning and Building - Approved technical guidance documents - Part 6: drainage, hygiene and hot water storage (gov.je)