These Regulations are made under sections 4B Petroleum Act 1998. They define the terms “protected groundwater source areas” and “other protected areas” for the purposes of section 4A of the Petroleum Act 1998 In these Regulations, “groundwater” has the same meaning as in the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010. Sections 4A and 4B of the 1998 Act are inserted by the Infrastructure Act 2015 (c.7) and set out certain requirements and safeguards in relation to onshore hydraulic fracturing in England and Wales. Column one of the table in section 4A sets out conditions which must be met before the Secretary of State may issue a hydraulic fracturing consent. Specifically, conditions 5 and 6 provide that associated hydraulic fracturing is not to take place in “protected groundwater source areas” or “other protected areas”.
Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord · 2016-03-10