Reservoir charges

Registration and notification fees

Activity

Registration of a large, raised reservoir: £778

Abandonment of a large, raised reservoir: £328

Re-use of an abandoned of a large, raised reservoir: £263

Discontinuance of a large, raised reservoir: £197

Risk designation review: £886

Annual compliance monitoring fees

Annual compliance monitoring fee applicable to high-risk reservoirs: £251

Definitions

Our charging scheme only applies to reservoirs which are regulated by us under the Reservoirs Act 1975, where:

• a “large, raised reservoir” is a reservoir which has a capacity of 10,000 cubic metres of water, or more, held above natural ground level
• a “high-risk reservoir” is a large, raised reservoir for which we have provided a written notice of final designation as a high-risk reservoir

Registration

When you register a large, raised reservoir, you must pay the charge shown above. This includes:

• our validation of the information and entry onto the public register
• our consideration and decision on the reservoir’s risk designation
• a proportion of our costs incurred investigating unregistered reservoirs

There is no fee for changes to information for reservoirs which are already properly registered. You must provide complete and accurate information as described here: Natural Resources Wales / Register your reservoir.

Abandonment

When you appoint a qualified civil engineer to inspect and report on the steps you need to take to abandon the reservoir, you must notify us and pay the charge shown above. The charge includes our administration costs for

• the receipt, validation and acknowledgement of the notification
• the receipt, validation and acknowledgement of statutory report
• our monitoring of any safety measures and acknowledgement of certification of these
• amendment of the public register

Re-use of an abandoned reservoir

When you appoint a Construction Engineer to inspect and report on the steps you need to take to reuse (refill) a reservoir which has been abandoned, you must notify us and pay the charge. The charge includes our administration costs for:

• receipt, validation and acknowledgement of the notification
• receipt, validation and acknowledgement of statutory certifications
• monitoring of safety measures
• amendment of the public register

Discontinuance

When you appoint a qualified civil engineer to design and supervise the alteration of a large, raised reservoir to discontinue it and remove it from regulation, you must notify us and pay the charge. The charge includes our administration costs for:

• the receipt, validation and acknowledgement of the notification
• the receipt, validation and acknowledgement of interim and final certification
• amendment of the public register

Risk designation review

You may submit a request us to review the risk designation of your reservoir at any time. Your submission should contain evidence which supports your case for a change of designation. The charge includes:

• our review of the current designation and desk review of new evidence provided
• issue of statutory notices
• amendment of the public register

This charge excludes:

• acquisition of any additional information or evidence by us
• site visits or meetings

If we consider the information provided by you is unclear or there is insufficient evidence, we may make our decision based on the information you have provided. Alternatively, we may provide you with recommendations for additional evidence to be provided at your cost. We may also provide a time and materials cost for us to acquire the information for you. You will need to pay the additional cost before we carry out any additional work.

The provision of additional information by you, or its acquisition by us, is to help make sure we base our decision on evidence, but it does not infer that the additional evidence will change our decision on the current designation. Where there is not enough evidence, or the evidence is unclear or we have doubt, we will designate a reservoir as a high-risk reservoir.

Annual compliance monitoring fees

Annual compliance monitoring charges are payable for each high-risk reservoir you are responsible for. This charge recovers a proportion of our cost for:

• monitoring statutory deadlines which apply to your reservoir
• providing reminders, advice and guidance across the reservoir community
• receipt, processing and acknowledgment of statutory statements and directions provided by your Supervising Engineer
• a proportion of our costs maintaining the public register

This charge is payable from the date your reservoir is designated as a high-risk reservoir. If you reservoir is designated part way through the year, our charge is applied on a daily pro rata basis for the remainder of the year.

Exclusions from charges

Our charges do not include the following activities:

• costs we incur related to any enforcement action we may take. Enforcement costs are recovered on a case-by-case basis
• de-registration following the decommissioning of a reservoir
• the cost of research and development programmes
• provision of information in response to Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Requests
• responses to planning consultations, permit application consultations and general enquiries.