BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT WASTE AND SEWAGE MANAGEMENT IN POLAND
1. Fundamentals of legislation (national law) in the Republic of Poland
In the field of water and sewage management as well as water protection, the Water Law Act is most
important. The Act specifies, inter alia, three types of water use, including the introduction of treated
wastewater into water or soil, namely:
a) widespread use, i.e. inland surface public waters, internal seawaters along with internal seawaters
of the Gulf of Gdansk and the waters of territorial sea intended for general use. The widespread use
of water serves the purpose of meeting personal needs , household or agricultural demands , without
using special technical equipment , as well as for leisure, hiking , water sports and, under the terms
of separate provisions, for amateur fishing (art. 34),
b) ordinary use of water , vested with land owners, who, in order to meet the needs of their
household and farm, can use, without a water permit, the waters owned by them and the
underground water contained in the soil , in the amount up to 5 m3 without using water equipment
(art. 36),
c) special use of water, defined by the act as the use beyond the common and ordinary use,
including all waters, regardless of the type of resources and their properties ; general use is
associated with specific business activity run by traders as well as legal and natural persons , or
satisfying general needs of population by communes (art. 37).
Water Law establishes for all water users (entities, municipal users, legal and natural persons) the
same rules for the use of water resources, i.e.:
1. the users disposing waste into water or soil are required to ensure the protection of waters
against pollution , in particular through the construction and operation of facilities used for protective
purposes (art. 42, section 1),
2. buildings or their complexes, whose use is associated with discharging sewage to water or soil,
cannot be put into operation if they do not meet the requirements of environmental protection (art.
42, section 2 and art. 76 of the Environmental Protection Law).
The construction of equipment used for water supply is carried out simultaneously with the solution
of issues of wastewater management, in particular through the construction of sewer systems and
wastewater treatment plants (art. 42, section 3) in the areas where the construction of sewer
systems would not benefit the environment or may result in excessive costs. In this case individual
systems should be used or other measures ensuring protection of the environment (art. 42, section
4).
The Act on collective water supply and sewage disposal addresses a number of issues related to the
proper functioning of water sewage companies. In the field of wastewater treatment, the Act imposes
on these companies the obligation to ensure the proper functioning of sewage treatment plants
operated by companies and what is inextricably linked with that - the obligation to proper wastewater
treatment.
The investor of sewage system and collective wastewater treatment in the cities as well as urban
settlements and rural areas is a commune, which must meet the collective needs of the community,
including the construction of devices protecting from water pollution. The commune is responsible for
providing funds for investment, delivery of equipment, work contractors, etc., and then for developing
rules for the use of collective sewage systems and obtaining a building permit for investments as
well as permit for discharge of wastewater.
2. Fundamentals of EU legislation
Directive No. 91/271/EEC, whose aim is to protect the environment from the adverse effects of
discharges, involves collection , treatment and discharge of urban waste water as well as treatment
and discharge of waste water from certain industrial sectors. The Directive specifies a number of
definitions related to wastewater management and the need to equip metropolitan areas with
collective sewage systems and municipal sewage treatment plants within specified dates. The
Directive also describes the required methods of wastewater treatment and the types of urban
wastewater treatment plants, as well as the need for pre-treatment of industrial wastewater
discharged to sewer systems and urban treatment plants. The Directive has introduced a
requirement for the intensification of treatment of wastewater in relation to total phosphorus and total
nitrogen in the water areas susceptible to eutrophication.
3. Individual wastewater treatment plants
All individual small wastewater treatment plants need to prepare their design documentation on the
basis of the provisions of the Building Act, obtain a building and water permit for water devices
(construction of the outlet of treated wastewater to the sewage receiver) issued by the Staroste.
4. The National Program for Municipal Wastewater Treatment (KPOŚK)
In order to carry out the tasks related to equipping metropolitan areas with collective waste water
systems and municipal wastewater treatment plants, arising from the Accession Treaty, the National
Programme for Municipal Wastewater Treatment (KPOŚK) was drawn up by the Minister of the
Environment, pursuant to the Water Law Act).
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KPOŚK includes the list of:
1) metropolitan areas, which should be equipped with collective sewage systems and wastewater
treatment plants within specified time limits, as well as the amount of biodegradable contamination
loads from these metropolitan areas, which needs to be removed.
2) projects in the scope of construction and modernisation of collective sewer networks and
municipal wastewater treatment plants as well as deadlines for their implementation.
5. Sewage
According to the Water Law Act of 18 July 2001 – sewage is:
a) wastewater, used in particular for living or economic purposes,
b ) liquid animal excrements, except for liquid manures for agricultural use in the manner and on the
terms set out in the Act of 10 July 2007 on fertilizers and fertilization (Journal of Laws No. 147, item
1033 and of 2011, No. 106, item 622 and No. 171, item 1016),
c) rainwater or snowmelt, contained in the open or closed sewer systems, originating from
contaminated surfaces with a stable surface, in particular from the cities, ports and airports, from
industrial, commercial, service and storage sites as well as from transport bases, roads and parking
lots,
d) leachate waters from landfills and mining waste treatment facilities where hazardous mining waste
as well as non-hazardous inert and extractive waste, waste storage sites, used brine, curative and
thermal waters are disposed,
e) water coming from the drainage of mining companies , with the exception of water pumped into
rock mass, if the types and quantity of water contained in the water pumped into rock mass are
identical to the types and amounts of substances contained in the collected water,
f) used water, discharged from the facilities where salmonids are bred,
g) used water, discharged from rearing or fish breeding facilities other than salmonids or other
aquatic organisms, if the production of these fish or organisms, defined as the average weight gain
of these fish or organisms in specific years of the production cycle, exceeds 1500 kg per 1 ha of a
usable area of fish ponds of that facility within one year of a given cycle.
6. Sewage disposal
The removal and disposal of wastewater system is a set of equipment and engineering structures used
for the collection and proper treatment of domestic, industrial and precipitation wastewater as well as
infiltration waters. Two basic categories in this system include:
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- subsystem of sewage networks,
- subsystem of wastewater treatment.
Sewerage network subsystem consists of the following elements:
- internal sewage systems in buildings,
- external sewer lines in the property,
- sewer lines disposing waste water from the property to external sewage,
- sewage ducts and collectors, along with developed places.
7. List of significant legal legislation acts (national law) of the Republic of Poland
1. The Water Law Act of 18 July 2001 - (Journal of Laws of 2001, No. 115, item 1229, as amended).
2. The Environmental Protection Law Act of 27 April 2001 - (Journal of Laws 2001, No. 62, item 627,
as amended).
3. The Act of 7 June 2001 on the collective water supply and collective sewage discharge (Journal of
Laws 2001, No. 72, item 747).
4. Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 24 July 2006 on the conditions to be met when
discharging sewage into water or soil, and on the substances particularly harmful to the aquatic
environment (Journal of Laws of 2006, No. 137, item 984).
5. Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 27 November 2002 on the requirements to be met by
surface waters used for supplying population with water, intended for human consumption. (Journal
of Laws of 2002, No. 204, item 1728).
6. Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 10 November 2005 on substances that are
particularly harmful to the aquatic environment, whose disposal into industrial wastewater to the
sewage equipment requires a water permit (Journal of Laws of 2005 No. 233, item 1988).
7. Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 22 December 2004 on the method of definition of the
limits of the area and the boundaries of metropolitan areas (Journal of Laws, No. 283, item 2841).
8. Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 27 June 2006 on the borders of river basins and water
regions (Journal of Laws of 2006, No 126, item 878).
9. Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 7 May 2002 on the classification of inland waterways
(Journal of Laws of 2002, No. 77, item 695).
10. Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 10 December 2002 on inland waterways. (Journal of
Laws of 2002, No. 210, item 1786).
11. Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 27 June 2006 on the borders of river basins and water
regions (Journal of Laws of 2006, No.126, item 878).
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12. Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 23 December 2002 on the criteria for determining
waters vulnerable to nitrogen compounds pollution from agricultural sources (Journal of Laws of
2002, No. 241, item 2093).
13. Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 23 December 2002 on detailed requirements to be
met by action programmes aimed at reducing the outflow of nitrogen from agricultural sources
(Journal of Laws of 2003, No. 4, item 44).
14. Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 18 June 2009 on a detailed scope of the development of
management plans for the waters of river basin (Journal of Laws of 2009, No. 106, item 882).
15. Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 27 July 2004 on the permissible masses of
substances that may be discharged to industrial wastewater (Journal of Laws of 2004.180.1867).
16. Regulation of the Minister of Construction of 14 July 2006 on the method of performance of
obligations of the providers of industrial waste and the conditions of discharge of wastewater to the
sewage system (Journal of Laws of 2006, No. 136, item 964).
17. Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 20 December 2005 on the amount of individual fines for
violating the conditions of discharge of wastewater to water or soil (Journal of Laws of 2005, No.
260, item 2177).
Prepared by:
LAW FIRM SZUCHA ADWOKACI I RADCOWIE PRAWNI DROŻDŻAŁ, GUGAŁA, SOBOLAK AND
PARTNERS provides legal assistance for Polish and international business entities and individual
clients. We are aware of increasing legal services globalization and, therefore, for over 20 years we are
meeting our clients expectations and we keep maintaining close partnerships with law firms in Poland
and abroad. Our goal is to create the best combination of professionalism and personal involvement as
well as providing complete legal advice to business clients and individuals.
Legal assistance and office practices include, in particular:
Commercial law, civil law, labour law, personal data protection law, financial and banking law, real
estate investments and construction law the law of intellectual property, tax law, pharmaceutical law,
competition law, administrative law, copyright, criminal law and environmental law , especially in the
areas of analysis of compliance with the requirements of environmental protection, clients
representation in proceedings before administrative bodies, advising on obtaining legal permits.
Responsible lawyers:
Maciej Sierota
e-mail: [email protected]
Edmund Falandysz
e-mail: [email protected]
WARSAW, NOVEMBER 2013
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