Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1995
Some ponds and ditches, and most dams or large earthworks are classed as construction projects under the above legislation. If the project involves more than five people on site, or where the work will last for more than 30 days, or involve more than 500 person hours of work, the project must be notified to the local office of the Health and Safety Executive. Notification and compliance with the regulations are the responsibility of the client, contractor, designer and planning supervisor. For further information, contact your local HSE office.
Environmental Protection Act 1991
Under the Duty of Care Regulations (Environmental Protection Act 1991), the removal and safe disposal of cut aquatic weed is required in order to avoid deoxygenation of water. The cut material must be removed to a location from which the liquor produced during decomposition cannot re-enter the watercourse. Transport and disposal costs of cut weed add considerable expense to aquatic vegetation management.
Particular care must be taken with poisonous plants. Livestock tend to avoid eating poisonous plants because they are unpalatable, but cutting, spraying or dredging of poisonous plants may increase the risk to livestock in several ways. Cut or sprayed and dead plants may become palatable to stock, whilst still being poisonous. Dredging may pull plants and roots up onto the banks where they are accessible to stock, and cutting may mix poisonous species with others so they are eaten accidentally. Under the Duty of Care Regulations, cut poisonous material must be removed from a site and disposed of at a registered disposal site. Landowners working on their own land are exempt.
The following plants remain toxic after cutting, digging or treating with herbicide:
Bracken Pteridium aquilinum
Common ragwort Senecio jacobaea
Cowbane Cicuta virosa
Foxglove Digitalis purpurea
Hard rush Juncus inflexus
Hemlock water dropwort Oenanthe crocota
Horsetails Equisetum spp
Yellow iris Iris pseudacorus
Reservoirs Act 1975
Large areas of above ground water storage, capable of holding 25,000 cubic metres of water, are subject to regulations concerning their design and management. This would include, for example, a waterbody 1ha in area and 2.5m deep, impounded by a dam. Although mainly applicable to reservoirs, this has affected the management of some ornamental lakes on large estates, many of which were constructed a century or more ago, and whose management is now subject to regulation.
Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979
Some ponds may in fact be remains of moats or mediaeval fish ponds, and may be scheduled as Ancient Monuments. Prior to any work being carried out which may affect a scheduled site, Scheduled Monument Consent must be obtained from the Secretary of State for the Environment or the appropriate Secretary of State for Wales or Scotland. Work which is essential for the purposes of health and safety is exempt, although the relevant Secretary of State must be informed before work commences. In Northern Ireland, at least six months notice of any work on a Scheduled Ancient Monument must be given to the Department of the Environment.
