Environmental information regulations

Since 20 February 2015 the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) apply to water and sewerage companies, including Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, allowing you to request information about our decision and activities that relate to or affect the environment.

Please note, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requirements do not apply to Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.

What is "environmental information"?

The Environmental Information Regulations state that environmental information is any information in written, visual, aural, electronic or any other material form on:
a) The state of the elements of the environment, such as air and atmosphere, water, soil, land, landscape and natural sites including wetland, coastal and marine area, biological diversity and its components, including genetically modified organisms, and the interaction among these elements;

b) Factors, such as substances, energy, noise, radiation or waste, including radioactive waste, emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment, affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment referred to in (a);

c) Measures (including administrative measures), such as policies, legislation, plans, programmes, environmental agreements, and activities affecting or likely to affect the elements and factors referred to in (a) and (b) as well as measures or activities designed to protect those elements;

d) Reports on the implementation of environmental legislation;

e) Cost-benefit and other economic analyses and assumptions used within the framework of the measures and activities referred to in (c)

f) The state of human health and safety, including the contamination of the food chain, where relevant, conditions of human life, cultural sites and built structures inasmuch as they are or may be affected by the state of the elements of the environment referred to in (a) or, through those elements, by any of the matters referred to in (b) and (c)

When not to make a request

If you wish to access information that we hold about you, please make a data subject access request instead. Please see here.

Making a request

If you would like to request environmental information from us, please include the following information:

• What information you would like us to provide
• The format you would like the information in
• Your contact details

You can submit your request by:

• emailing us at EnvironmentalInformationRequests@dwrcymru.com; or
• write to us at Environmental Information Requests, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, PO BOX 690, Linea, Fortran Road, Cardiff, CF3 5WL

We will usually respond to your request within 20 working days. We may extend this timeframe by a further 20 working days if the requested information is particularly complex or voluminous. We would let you know if this is the case.

Exceptions

We may not be able to provide the information requested if we do not hold the information, or an exception applies. If we decide that an exception applies, we will tell you why. Where relevant, we will explain the public interest reasons for withholding the information. You can appeal against this decision and we will include details of how to do this in our response.

The ICO website has more information about refusal of requests.

Charges

We have the discretion to charge a reasonable fee for providing environmental information. We reserve the right to make a charge that will not exceed the costs we incur in providing the information.

If you are not satisfied with our response

You can ask for an internal review if you don’t think we have complied with our obligations under the Environmental Information Regulations.

Internal review requests should be submitted within 40 working days of the date of receipt of our response to your request for information and should be addressed to Company Secretary, Linea, Fortran Road, St Mellons, Cardiff CF3 0LT.

If you’re not satisfied with the outcome of our internal review, you can complain to the information commissioner.

Further Information

For further information about the Environmental Information Regulations visit here.