| 释义 |
pollution
n. Any action rendering the environment impure. Statutes relating wholly or partly to air pollution include the Clean Air Act 1993, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Control of Pollution Act 1974, the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and the Environment Act 1995, which control the emission of smoke into the atmosphere, the emission of noxious or offensive substances, and the composition of petrol and other fuels. EU directive 2008/50/EC combined most of the existing European legislation on air quality into a single directive, setting legally binding limits for concentrations in outdoor air of major air pollutants that impact public health, such as particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. The UK failed to achieve compliance with the limits placed on nitrogen dioxide by the deadline of 1 January 2010, and the Supreme Court granted a declaration that there had been a breach of article 13 of the Air Quality Directive (R (on the application of ClientEarth) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Respondent) [2013] UKSC 25). As required, the UK government published a National Plan for improving air quality in 2015. A further Clean Air Strategy for the post-Brexit era was published in 2019. Water pollution generally is governed by the Control of Pollution Act 1974 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990, under which it is an offence (among other things) to allow polluting matter to enter rivers or other inland waters or to impede their flow so as to aggravate pollution due to other causes. Management of water supplies is governed primarily by the Water Act 2003, which implemented the EU’s Water Framework Directive, and the Water Resources Act 1991. Control of pollution by oil is covered by the Prevention of Oil Pollution Act 1971. Pollution by the deposit of waste on land is governed primarily by the Control of Pollution Act 1974, which permits household, commercial, and industrial waste to be deposited only on licensed sites (see waste disposal). Local authorities are required by the Act to collect and dispose of household waste free of charge; for the purposes of refuse disposal by their residents, they are also, by the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, obliged to provide free refuse dumps. Additional powers in relation to waste disposal are contained in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. EU legislation in this area includes the Landfill Directive 1999, the Waste Incineration Directive 2000, and the Revised Waste Framework Directive 2008 (see hazardous waste). The European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive 1996, implemented in the UK through the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2000, regulates pollution from noise and vibrations as well as emissions to air, land, and water. The Environmental Liability Directive 2004, implemented in the UK through the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015, imposes obligations on operators of activities that cause or threaten to cause environmental damage. To date, most of the UK’s environmental law has been driven by decisions made at EU level, with the work of monitoring and enforcement also falling mainly on EU bodies. With this in mind, the current government passed the Environment Act 2021, which sets out a comprehensive new framework for environmental law after Brexit. The Act also establishes a new watchdog body, the Office for Environmental Protection. |