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7. FINANCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF DESIGNATION
The Scottish Government understands that some of the costs associated with the proposed new designations will fall to SEPA in respect of its monitoring and sampling regime, and for investigative studies to draw up action programmes where required. The major cost will fall to Scottish Water and then to their customers through their charging scheme - local dischargers, industries, or residents with private sewage disposal systems, if these are made to a designated shellfish water. In addition, diffuse sources of pollution such as run-off from roads and other developments and agricultural land may affect the water quality at some of the sites and may have to be controlled within existing or future legislative instruments.
In relation to the costs for Scottish Water, in some cases, measures planned to meet EU environmental standards, based on other legislation, such as the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive or the Bathing Waters Directive, may leave little or no requirement for extra expenditure to meet SWD standards. However, in other cases, additional capital works may be needed to improve the standards of collecting systems and limit intermittent discharges from Combined Sewer Overflows ( CSOs) in particular. In other cases, improvements or alternatives to local septic tanks may be needed (such as soakaway treatment systems). That said, it should be borne in mind that the quality of the proposed waters is generally already high.
The draft Regulatory Impact Assessment in Annex A.1 describes in general the financial consequences of designation. The Scottish Government would be particularly grateful for any specific or additional information from consultees.
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