14.01 The protection of the countryside from pollution and other damage occasioned by agriculture has been given increased prominence in UK legislation in recent years.
The legal framework for the control of agricultural pollution is premised by the need to reconcile two objectives: the demand for efficiently produced food at low cost; and the demand for water supplies, the aerial environment, and the wider countryside to be protected and cared for.
To these objectives must also be added the need to address climate change mitigation and adaptation – in respect of both of which policies agriculture has an important role to play. These objectives are currently pursued in the UK using a combination of: (i) official guidance, for example in the form of Codes of Practice, aimed at minimising agricultural pollution; and (ii) regulatory measures to deal with major pollution hazards and to deter potentially harmful practices. The legislation on pollution control also implements several EU Directives with important applications to agriculture; especially the Water Framework Directive,1 the Groundwater Directive,2 the Waste Framework Directive3 and the Industrial Emissions (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) Directive.414.02 As we have seen, nature conservation legislation aimed at the protection of wildlife habitats and species is largely premised on the voluntary principle.5 The legislation providing for the control of agricultural pollution is, however, more closely based on a regulatory ‘command and control’ model, supplemented by Codes of Practice giving guidance on the avoidance of pollution hazards. The regulatory control of farm pollution was considerably enhanced by the Water Act 1989 and the Water Resources Act 1991. This provided for the introduction of regulations setting standards for the storage and handling of farm wastes, and removed the defence of ‘good agricultural practice’ hitherto available to landowners charged with causing point source pollution of rivers and watercourses. The legislation in this area sets statutory norms for the conduct of agricultural enterprises (aimed at preventing/minimising pollution) backed by the use of a system of environmental permits for the conduct of many potentially polluting activities (the ‘command’) and penal sanctions (‘control’) for breach of the terms of an environmental permit.
14.03 In the interests of administrative efficiency, the regulation of waste, aerial pollution and water pollution was brought into one integrated regulatory system based on the issuance of ‘environmental permits’ by the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.6 The 2010 Regulations did not change the substantive law, and the principal measures remain with minor amendments – in the case of water pollution this was the Water Resources Act 1991, and in the case of aerial pollution the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The pollution offences associated with the contravention of environmental permits are unchanged, but are now to be found in the 2010 Regulations, which will be discussed in more detail below. It should also be noted that the Environment Agency has power to issue civil sanctions for contravention of many of the pollution regulations discussed in this chapter – including, for example, the rules for the use of sludge and contravention of regulations for nitrate use in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones.7