Waste water: construction of plants - approval
Service description
For the construction and operation of a wastewater treatment plant and any significant changes to it, you will require a water law plant permit in addition to the water law discharge permit or indirect discharge permit (into the public sewer system), depending on the size and type of plant. This is usually included in the discharge permit. If a plant permit under water law is issued, an additional building permit is no longer required.
What documents are required?
As a rule, the following are required:
- Letter of application
- the plans and documents drawn up by a competent person
- Landscape conservation plan,
each in quadruplicate.
The water authority may request further documentation.
If an environmental impact assessment is to be carried out for the approval of the plant, an environmental impact study is also required.
What fees apply?
The fee range is between €26.50 and €26,580 if a discharge permit is issued at the same time, otherwise between €106.25 and €13,290. The amount of the fee depends on the work involved and the value/construction costs of the system.
What deadlines do I have to observe?
The permit must be applied for in good time before the start of construction.
The permit expires if construction is not started within two years and completed within five years of notification of the permit. These deadlines can be extended by the responsible water authority.Legal basis
Legal remedy
Objection, action before the administrative courts.
What else should I know?
Who is obliged (and entitled) to build and operate a wastewater system depends on the obligation to dispose of wastewater.
In principle, this is the responsibility of the independent cities, the independent municipalities and the association municipalities, which must properly dispose of the wastewater generated in their area; they must generally construct and operate the necessary facilities and plants for this purpose.
In the case of wastewater disposal from individual properties in outdoor areas or from commercial operations or facilities, the obligation to dispose of wastewater can be transferred to the authorized users or the commercial operation or the operator of the facility at the request of the municipality responsible for wastewater disposal.
In these cases, the new responsible parties may then have to set up their own wastewater facilities in consultation with the local authority responsible for wastewater disposal before discharging into the public sewer system, for which a water law plant permit is then required.
Which systems do not require a permit is determined by the State Water Act .
If the wastewater treatment plant is part of a higher-level plant requiring approval under the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG), the water law issues are also taken into account in the BImSch approval. However, this does not apply if a permit under water law is required, which includes the plant permit under water law.
The documents and plans for the permit application must be prepared by a competent person within the meaning of the State Water Act who is entered in a list maintained by the Rhineland-Palatinate Chamber of Engineers or in a directory maintained there. Registration in a comparable list of another federal state is also valid in Rhineland-Palatinate.
This does not apply to projects of local authorities (with the exception of local municipalities) if the plans and documents have been prepared by competent members of the administration.
For wastewater treatment plants designed for organically polluted wastewater of 120 kg per day or more biochemical oxygen demand in five days (raw) or for inorganically polluted wastewater of 10 m³ or more wastewater in 2 hours (excluding cooling water), at least a preliminary assessment of the individual case is required to carry out an environmental impact assessment.
Supporting institutions
Structural and approval authorities as water management authorities;
Rhineland-Palatinate Chamber of Engineers