Section 2: Water and sanitation

The file submitted to the enquiry includes a draft delimitation of the commune’s sanitation zones, showing the sanitation settlements included within the zoning perimeter, and a notice justifying the planned zoning.

Communes all or part of whose territory is included in a sanitation agglomeration whose populations and economic activities produce wastewater with a gross organic pollution load of more than 120 kg per day must be equipped, for the relevant part of their territory, with a wastewater collection system. An order by the ministers responsible for health and the environment sets the minimum technical requirements to ensure that wastewater collection and…

Water entering a wastewater collection system must, except in the case of unusual situations, particularly those due to heavy rainfall, be subjected to treatment before being discharged into the natural environment, under the conditions set out in articles R. 2224-12 to R. 2224-17 below. An order of the ministers responsible for health and the environment sets the minimum technical requirements to ensure the effectiveness of wastewater treatment, in particular with…

In wastewater agglomerations whose population and economic activities produce wastewater with a gross organic pollution load of less than or equal to 120 kg per day, the treatment mentioned in article R. 2224-11 must enable compliance with the quality objectives applicable to receiving waters by the décret n°91-1283 du 19 décembre 1991, by the water development and management master plan for the basin to which these agglomerations belong and, where…

In wastewater agglomerations whose population and economic activities produce wastewater with a gross organic pollution load of more than 120 kg per day, the treatment mentioned in article R. 2224-11 is biological treatment with secondary decantation or treatment with equivalent purifying power. However, wastewater treated at altitudes of more than 1,500 metres may be subject to less stringent treatment than that prescribed in the first paragraph, provided that it is…

In wastewater agglomerations whose population and economic activities produce wastewater with a gross organic pollution load of more than 600 kg per day and whose discharges occur in a sensitive area defined in articles 6 and 7 of decree no. 94-469 of 3 June 1994, the treatment mentioned in article R. 2224-11 is more stringent treatment than that provided for in article R. 2224-13. This more stringent treatment is applicable…

Municipalities must set up monitoring of wastewater collection systems and treatment plants with a view to maintaining and checking their efficiency, on the one hand, and the environment receiving the discharge, on the other. An order of the ministers responsible for health and the environment lays down the technical procedures by which monitoring is carried out : a) The efficiency of wastewater collection; b) The efficiency of treatment of this…

The period referred to in the second paragraph of II of Article L. 2224-8 is set by the service regulations provided for in Article L. 2224-12. This period may not exceed six weeks from the date on which the municipality receives the request from the owner or the joint owners’ association to carry out the inspection of the connection to the public sewerage system.

The discharge of sewage sludge into the aquatic environment by any means whatsoever is prohibited.

Non-collective sanitation systems must allow the preservation of surface and groundwater quality. The technical specifications applicable to non-collective sanitation systems receiving a gross organic pollution load less than or equal to 1.2 kg are set by joint order of the ministers responsible for health, housing and the environment. The technical requirements applicable to non-collective sanitation systems receiving a gross organic pollution load of more than 1.2 kg are those set…