Private Water Supplies

A private water supply is any supply which is not provided by a water company, such as Veolia. The water may come from a well, a spring, a lake, a bore-hole or a stream.

On 1st January 2010 the Private Water Supplies Regulations 2009 came into force.
Under the new Regulations, it is expected that every home or business should have a supply of good clean water to be fit for people who use it.

The new Regulations will specifically impact on supplies for human consumption purposes which on average provide 10 or more cubic metres of water per day or serve 50 or more persons, or are supplied or used as part of a commercial or public activity. The Local Authority may monitor supplies to single private dwellings at their discretion and must monitor a supply if the owner or occupier of the dwelling asks them to do so; there is discretionary power to carry out a risk assessment.

Each local authority has a responsibility for holding information on all private water supplies in its District, and the Regulations stipulate how often samples must be taken and what the water must be tested for.

What happens if the supply does not meet the standards?
Local authorities will be required to investigate and to establish the cause of a failure to meet a standard or an indicator parameter value. Initially advice will be provided to the responsible person to assist with solving the problem informally. Enforcement options are available if an informal resolution cannot be met.

New private water supply regulations - what you need to Know.
The new Regulations aim to protect public health and require the same quality standards as the mains water supply. Each supply is to undergo a risk assessment so that the monitoring regime reflects the risk it presents. This will depend on factors such as the area of abstraction, the number of consumers and the type of source. The Regulations affect all private supplies however those serving a single dwelling will only be risk assessed and sampled upon request. Within 5 years, the Council has to complete the risk assessments for all supplies within its District (except supplies to single dwellings) and there is a duty on the Council to regularly monitor supplies used as part of a commercial or public activity and for supplies serving 50 or more persons per day.

The Council must charge for this work.

Service		Maximum fee (£)
Risk assessment (each assessment):		500
Sampling (each visit)(i):		100
Investigation (each investigation):		100
Granting an authorisation (each authorisation):		100
Analysing a sample—
	taken under Regulation 10:	25
	taken during check monitoring:	100
	taken during audit monitoring:	500

(i) No fee is payable where a sample is taken and analysed solely to confirm or clarify the results of the analysis of a previous sample.

Contamination from flooding
If you rely on a private water supply and suffer a flooding event, you should assume the supply has been contaminated and is not fit to use without boiling. Alternatively you could use a bottled water supply, but please refer to the advice of the Health Protection Agency on giving bottled water to infants. Even if you have a treatment system, it may be the contamination is heavy (this may not be visible) and the treatment method may have been unable to cope with this. Therefore still treat the water as contaminated and boil accordingly. If you are concerned about the quality of your supply, contact Environmental Health on 01895 837333 or email environment@southbucks.gov.uk.

To Find Out More
Advice on the treatment and regulation of private water supplies is found in this leaflet entitled Private Water Supplies.

If your home or business is served by a private water supply, and you would like more information, or would like to arrange for sampling please call Environmental Health on 01895 837333 or email environment@southbucks.gov.uk.

Private Water Supplies: www.privatewatersupplies.gov.uk/

Drinking Water Inspectorate:www.dwi.gov.uk/consumers/advice-leaflets/pws.pdf