Environment Agency

Environment Agency
Appleton House, 430 Birchwood Boulevard, Birchwood, Warrington, WA3 7WD

Tel: 01925 840000
Fax: 01925 852260

What We Do

If you contact us, you are one of our customers. We deal with individual members of the public, community groups, business, light and heavy industry and the Government.

We provide a variety of services and promise the following standards of work:

Conservation	Preventing pollution
Contaminated land	Radioactive substances
Fisheries	Recreation
Flood defence	Waste
General services	Water quality
Integrated pollution control	Water resources
Navigation	What we do not do
Planning liaison	National contact details

Conservation

We must make sure we protect wildlife, landscape and archaeological heritage, either by allowing others to do things or to carry out work ourselves.

We will answer all requests for advice on fisheries, recreation, conservation and navigation matters within 20 working days.

Contaminated Land

During the course of its use, land can be damaged by chemical pollution. A number of public and private organisations are involved with finding and dealing with the problem. We aim to work with others to reduce the risk of harm from contamination and to bring land back into good use. We will tell you which is the right organisation to contact for contaminated land issues within five working days.

Fisheries

Fisheries has the responsibility for maintaining, improving and developing salmon, sea trout, non-migratory trout, coarse and eel fisheries. We regulate fishing by issuing over 1 million licences for rod angling and net fishing. We carry out improvements to fisheries by improving the habitat and fish stocks and providing advice to fishery owners.

We will assess how serious any incident reported to us is of fish being killed and then take action when necessary. We will do this within two hours of being told during working hours and within four hours at all other times.

We will assess and take action on reported incidents of illegal fishing or suspicious handling of salmon within two hours of being told during normal working hours, or within four hours at all other times.

Flood defence

Flood defence has the role of reducing risk to people and the environment from flooding by providing effective defences. Protecting life is our highest priority and to meet this aim we provide a flood forecasting and warning service and discourage development in flood-risk areas. We also manage over 43,000 kilometres of flood defences, and we have an aim to protect and improve the natural environment by promoting flood defences that work with nature.

In areas where there is a flood forecasting facility already, we aim to provide a warning (up to two hours beforehand) for properties in flood-risk areas.

We will make a decision for permission (a 'consent') to carry out work in, over, under or near a watercourse within two months of receiving a fully filled-in application.

General services

Our office working hours are from 9am to 5pm. Outside these hours we run a 24-hour service for receiving reports and responding to all environmental incidents and emergencies.
Our staff will wear name badges when dealing with you and give their names on the phone and in all letters.
We will answer all your phone calls within 15 seconds.
If you write to us with a general question, you can expect a written reply or acknowledgement within 10 working days of your letter reaching us.
We aim to deal with your complaints immediately but if this is not possible, we will provide a written response or holding reply within five working days of receiving your complaint.
We will deal with simple requests made under the Open Government Code of Practice on Access to Government Information 1993 within 20 working days.
If you ask for information under the Environmental Information Regulations 1992, we will respond within two months of receiving your request.
We will provide a Welsh and English service for customers living in Wales. This meets the requirements of the Welsh Language Act 1993.

Integrated pollution control

'Integrated pollution control' (IPC) is made up of regulating 2,000 of the most polluting, or technologically-complicated industrial and other processes to help prevent pollution or cause as few harmful releases to the air, on land or to water as possible.

We will decide on IPC applications within four months of receiving a fully filled-in application. Complicated cases may take longer and we will agree on a period when we will get back to you.

Navigation

Navigation is responsible for managing and improving over 800km of inland waterways, the Harbour of Rye and the Dee Estuary. We aim to make these resources widely available to the public for leisure activities. We issue licences for over 40,000 boats, involving over 550,000 people.

We will assess and take action on reports of navigation incidents within two hours of being told during normal working hours and four hours at all other times.

All our navigation locks will be working for the most of the year and we will publicise all planned closures giving at least one month's notice.

Planning liaison

We provide advice to local authorities' planning offices about planning applications. We will give advice on 50% of all applications within 10 days (two weeks), 75% within 15 days (three weeks) and 95% within 20 days (four weeks).

We will consider all consultation and draft plans within six weeks of receiving them. Or we will meet other specified local planning authority timescales.

Preventing pollution

We respond to reported pollution incidents in the air, on land or in water and receive over 32,000 reports of water pollution each year.

We will assess how serious all reported pollution incidents are (not necessarily by going to the site) within two hours. When we assess an incident as an emergency we will deal with it within two hours of it being reported during normal working hours. We will deal with it within four hours at other times. We will generally deal with less urgent incidents within 24 hours.

We will attempt to contact anyone who reports an incident and who wants to receive a response, to let them know the outcome.

Radioactive substances

Our responsibility for radioactive substances is made up of regulating how radioactive materials are kept and used and the build up and disposal of radioactive waste. In the case of nuclear sites we only regulate the way waste is disposed of and the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate regulates how radioactive materials are kept and used and the build up of radioactive waste.

We currently manage over 8,000 permits for radioactive materials and waste. We will make a decision on these permits for keeping, using, managing and disposing of radioactive waste within four months of receiving a fully filled-in application. Complicated cases may take longer and we will agree on a period when we will get back to you.

Recreation

Recreation and access are also important parts of our work. Over 1000 sites we control are managed for recreational use. We also have a general duty to promote the recreational use of water and land throughout England and Wales.

Waste

Waste regulation is made up of providing advice on the best waste management practices and making sure that waste is dealt with legally and safely. We also register and monitor all those who carry waste for business. We must be told beforehand if anyone moves dangerous waste (known as 'special waste'). We register companies who produce a lot of waste and we monitor them to make sure they meet their targets for waste recovery and recycling.

We will make decisions on applications for waste licences within four months of receiving a fully filled-in application, with all supporting information. For example, we may need proof of planning permission and financial guarantees. We will decide on any modifications to licences within two months and we will deal with licences you send back to us within three months of receiving them. Complicated cases may take longer and we will agree on a period when we will get back to you.

Water quality

We prevent and control pollution and monitor the quality of rivers, estuaries, coastal waters and groundwater. We manage over 85,000 'discharge consents' which give permission for people to release used water into a river, groundwater or the sea. This includes over 6,000 sewage works.

We will make a decision on an application for permission to release effluent (a 'discharge consent') within four months of receiving a fully filled-in application. Complicated cases may take longer and we will agree on a period when we will get back to you.

We regularly monitor rivers, estuaries and the sea to check the quality of the water. We report the results of our water and effluent sample analyses in the public register. We will put all the sample results on the register within 60 days of them being taken.

Water resources

In water resources we work to save, redistribute and improve river, lake, reservoir and underground water supplies and we encourage water conservation. We balance the needs of people who use water and the environment by managing over 50,000 'abstraction and management licences' issued to customers to take or use water from rivers and boreholes.

We will make a decision on an application for a licence to take or use water within three months of receiving a fully filled-in application. Complicated cases may take longer and we will agree on a period when we will get back to you.

What we do not do

We do not cover all areas of environmental law and service to the general public.

We are not responsible for:

noise problems (except if it is to do with our work)
litter,
air pollution arising from vehicles, household areas, small businesses and small industries
collecting waste in your local area
planning permission
environmental health and food hygiene

Your local authority deals with these issues and will contact us when necessary. The local authorities also deal with contaminated land issues by working with us.

We are not responsible for the quality or supply of drinking water or getting rid of sewage waste. You should contact your local water or sewerage companies for more details - you can find their details in your local phone directory.

We also do not issue grants and we do not endorse products, but we may be able to give you advice on some funding sources that are available. Contact your local office for details. We do work with other organisations to improve the environment.

We only have duties within England and Wales. For Scotland you should contact the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency on 01786 457700. Or, for Northern Ireland you should contact the Environment and Heritage Service on 01232 254754 or the Rivers Agency on 01232 253440.

National contact details

For all environmental incidents call our Emergency Hotline 0800 80 70 60

Website: www.environment-agency.gov.uk