Volume 14: Responsibilities for Human and Animal Health
8. Pollution control and waste disposal
PART I: THE LEGISLATION IN FORCE AT 1986
Control of Pollution Act 1974
Solid waste
Special waste
Water pollution
Air pollution
Summary

Control of Pollution Act 1974

8.10 The Control of Pollution Act 1974 (COPA) ¹ sought to draw together the earlier separate legislative strands and to treat pollution and waste together as a unified concept. It applied to the whole of Great Britain and was brought into effect over several years by a series of Orders and Regulations. The equivalent legislation in Northern Ireland was the Pollution Control and Local Government (Northern Ireland) Order 1978. The Act covered waste on land (Part I), the pollution of water (Part II), noise (Part III), and pollution of the atmosphere (Part IV). Because COPA 1974 set out to deal in a comprehensive manner with all forms of waste and pollution, it is a convenient point to start the consideration of the legislative basis in these areas for the agriculture and animal industries.

Solid waste

8.11 The definition of 'waste' for the purposes of Part I of COPA was contained in Section 30(1) and did not aim to be comprehensive, but was drafted to so that it:

includes any substance which constitutes a scrap material or an effluent or other unwanted surplus substance arising from the application of any process; and any substance or article which requires to be disposed of as being broken, worn out, contaminated or otherwise spoiled . . .,

and for the purposes of this Part of this Act any thing which is discarded or otherwise dealt with as if it were waste shall be presumed to be waste unless the contrary is proved.

8.12 Waste which was regulated by the provisions of Part I of COPA was known as 'controlled waste', which meant 'household, industrial and commercial waste or any such waste', these being further defined in section 30(3) of the Act. It was an offence under section 3(1) of the Act to deposit or cause or knowingly permit the deposit of controlled waste on land unless that land formed part of a licensed waste disposal site. If the waste in question was poisonous, noxious or polluting, was likely to give rise to an environmental hazard or could reasonably be assumed to have been abandoned, then under section 3(3) a higher fine or longer sentence could be imposed on summary conviction or indictment. A licence to operate a waste disposal site had to be obtained from the waste disposal authority for the area; this was a county council in England, a district council in Wales, and a district or island council in Scotland.

8.13 But although commercial waste was controlled waste and consisted of 'waste from premises used wholly or mainly for the purposes of a trade or business or the purposes of sport, recreation or entertainment', waste from premises used for agriculture was expressly excluded from this definition. Hence no waste from farms was subject to the provisions or penalties of the controlled waste regime.

8.14 This exclusion was moderated through the provisions of section 18 of the Act, which dealt with waste other than controlled waste. Subsection (2) provided that a person who deposited non-controlled waste on land was guilty of an offence under Section 3(3) where, if it had been controlled waste and no disposal licence was in force, he would have been guilty of an offence under section 3(1). Those prosecuting such a charge had to show that under section 4(5) of the Act:

(a) the presence of waste on land gives rise to an environmental hazard if the waste had been deposited in such a manner or such a quantity (whether that quantity by itself or cumulatively with other deposits of the same or different substances) as to subject persons or animals to a material risk of death, injury or impairment of health or as to threaten the pollution (whether on the surface or underground) of any water supply; and

(b) the fact that waste is deposited in containers shall not of itself be taken to exclude any risk which might be expected to arise if the waste were not in containers.

(c) In the case of any deposit of waste, the degree of risk relevant for the purposes of the preceding subsection shall be assessed with particular regard

(a) to the measures, if any, taken by the person depositing the waste, or by the owner or occupier of the land, or by others, for minimising the risk; and

(b) to the likelihood of the waste, or any container in which it is deposited, being tampered with by children or others.

8.15 The application of Section 18 to agricultural wastes was confirmed in January 1991 when Mr Alan Lawrence of MAFF's Animal Health Division wrote to all waste disposal authorities in England drawing their attention to concerns that some farmers might choose to leave the carcasses of animals which had died on the farm lying in fields or dump them elsewhere rather than disposing of them as required by the law. The letter continued:

But my main purpose in writing to you is to draw your attention to the powers that are available to waste disposal authorities to take action under Section 18 of theControl of Pollution Act 1974, against those who leave animal carcases lying around on farms or elsewhere rather than dispose of them properly . . . We believe that these powers give waste disposal authorities the necessary teeth to take action against the dumping of animal carcasses and should be used wherever appropriate to prevent the practice becoming commonplace. ²

Special waste

8.16 Part I of COPA also placed a duty, in section 17(1), on the Secretary of State for the Environment to make regulations providing for the disposal of 'special waste', which was controlled waste of any kind that was difficult or dangerous to dispose of, so that special provision was required. This duty was discharged by the introduction of the Control of Pollution (Special Waste) Regulations 1980. These Regulations gave effect to Council Directive 78/319/EEC which was concerned with toxic and dangerous waste, its handling and disposal, within the EEC. Regulation 2 defined the term 'special waste' as applying to any controlled waste which

(a) consists of or contains any of the substances listed in Part I of Schedule 1 and by reason of the presence of such substances,

(i.) is dangerous to life within the meaning of Part II of Schedule 1, or

(ii.) has a flashpoint of 21ºC or less

(b) is a medicinal product as defined in section 130 of the Medicines Act 1968 which is available only in accordance with a prescription given by an appropriate practitioner as defined in section 58(1) of that Act.

8.17 One of the substances listed as special waste was 'pharmaceutical and veterinary compounds'. The term 'dangerous to life' was defined in the Schedule as meaning that:

(a) a single dose of not more than five cubic centimetres would be likely to cause death or serious damage to tissue if ingested by a child of 20 kilograms' body weight or

(b) exposure to it for fifteen minutes or less would be likely to cause serious damage to human tissue by inhalation, skin contact or eye contact.

8.18 The 1980 Regulations introduced a system of consignment notes and made it the duty of the producer of special waste to complete these, with a copy firstly to the waste disposal authority for the area where the waste was produced, and secondly to the authority for the area where the waste was to be disposed of, plus a copy for the waste carrier. There was a duty on the producer, carrier and disposer of the special waste each to maintain a register, including plans showing the location of the disposal for all special waste they handled, and there were substantial penalties for failure to observe any provisions of the Regulations. The enforcing authority in all cases, as generally in Part I of COPA, was the waste disposal authority; that is, the county councils in England, district councils in Wales, and island or district councils in Scotland.

Water pollution

8.19 Part II of COPA dealt with the pollution of water and Section 31(1) made it an offence for anyone to cause or knowingly permit any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter to enter any stream or controlled waters or any specified underground waters; or any matter to enter a stream which was likely to impede its proper flow, leading to a substantial aggravation of pollution due to other causes; or any solid waste to enter a stream or restricted waters. However, under section 31(2)(c), if the entry in question was attributable to an act or omission which is in accordance with good agricultural practice (other than in two very specific circumstances), then no offence was committed. For the purposes of those provisions, any practice recommended in a code approved for those purposes by the Minister of Agriculture (or in Scotland and Wales, the Secretary of State) was deemed to be good agricultural practice. ³

8.20 MAFF published its Code of Good Agricultural Practice approved for England and Wales for the purposes of section 31(2)(c) in January 1985. This was 'intended both to minimise the risks of water pollution and to free farmers from unreasonable liability under the Act while conducting normal farming operations'. The Code dealt with inorganic and synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, silage effluent and organic manures, slurries and waste waters. Five other MAFF publications, referred to in the Code, had been issued between 1982 and 1984; these gave detailed information on farm waste management and formed part of the Code of Practice applicable to water pollution as from 1985. The booklets covered general information, farm manures and other slurry wastes, advice on avoiding pollution from slurry wastes, profitable utilisation of livestock manures, and dirty water disposal on the farm.

Air pollution

8.21 The provisions of Part IV of COPA dealing with the prevention of atmospheric pollution were not of direct relevance to farming or waste and pollution from animal processing industries. ⁴ But Part IV also gave local authorities permissive powers to investigate and research air pollution, to require returns from operators of premises emitting pollutants, and to publish any information received.

Summary

8.22 COPA introduced or consolidated significant controls over solid waste disposal to land and water pollution, but also contained important exemptions or derogations from these systems for the agriculture industry. Much of the earlier legislation continued in force alongside COPA and also provided the background to the operation of the agriculture and animal waste industries; in particular the Public Health Acts 1936 and 1961, the Clean Air Acts 1956 and 1968, the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Acts 1951 and 1961, and the Water Resources Act 1963.

8.23 The next part of this Chapter examines the responsibilities for dealing with waste and pollution imposed firstly on the farming industry in relation to animal carcasses and the use of other waste, and secondly on the cattle processing industries from the slaughterhouse onwards.