Guidance

Storing and treating litter, straw, slurry and washwater from an animal disease outbreak: RPS 36

Updated 6 October 2023

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/treating-and-storing-litter-straw-manure-and-slurry-from-an-animal-disease-outbreak-rps-36/treating-and-storing-litter-straw-manure-and-slurry-from-an-animal-disease-outbreak-rps-36

This regulatory position statement (RPS) does not change your legal requirement to have an environmental permit for a waste operation when you store and treat litter, straw, slurry and washwater from an animal disease outbreak.

However, the Environment Agency will not normally take enforcement action against you if you do not comply with this legal requirement provided that:

  • your activity and the circumstances meet the description set out in this RPS

  • you comply with the conditions set out in this RPS

In addition your activity must not cause (or be likely to cause) pollution of the environment or harm to human health, and must not:

  • cause a risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals

  • cause a nuisance through noise or odours

  • adversely affect the countryside or places of special interest

Activity this RPS applies to

This RPS applies to the storage and treatment of waste:

  • litter
  • straw
  • slurry*
  • washwater

The waste must be generated during cleansing and disinfection after an animal disease outbreak has been confirmed by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

*The Reduction and Prevention of Agricultural Diffuse Pollution (England) Regulations 2018 define slurry as “liquid or semi-liquid matter with a consistency enabling it to be pumped or to be discharged by gravity, which is composed of:

(a) excreta produced by livestock while in a yard or building (including that held in wood chip corrals), or

(b) a mixture of livestock excreta, livestock bedding, rainwater and washings from a yard or building used by livestock.

Circumstances in which this RPS applies

This RPS applies when an animal disease outbreak has been confirmed by the APHA.

Conditions you must comply with

You must:

  • follow the APHA requirements  when you store and treat waste from an animal disease outbreak
  • inform your local Environment Agency office before you treat litter, straw, slurry and washwater waste from an animal disease outbreak
  • keep records for 2 years (3 years for hazardous waste) to show that you have complied with this RPS and make these records available to the Environment Agency on request

You must dispose of your washwater, litter, straw and slurry by one of the following means:

  • you can release washwater to foul sewer if you have written approval from your sewerage undertaker

  • use a registered waste carrier to transport the waste to an appropriately permitted facility using waste code 02 01 06 for washwater containing litter, straw, manure and slurry or waste code 16 10 02 or 16 10 01* for washwater

  • for spreading washwater to land, you must complete a disposal of disinfectant washwater form and email it to PSC-WaterQuality@environment-agency.gov.uk - the Environment Agency will assess your washwater disposal plan and tell you if you need an environmental permit to spread to land

For yard storage you must:

For field storage you must:

  • only store waste litter and straw
  • store waste litter and straw in packed heaps with an A-shaped profile

For field storage, you must not store waste litter and straw heaps:

  • for more than 12 months
  • within 10 metres of inland freshwaters or coastal waters
  • within 50 metres of a spring, well or borehole
  • where there is significant risk of pollution entering inland freshwaters or coastal waters
  • in areas at risk of flooding

Things to note

Routine cleansing and disinfection does not require an environmental permit.

This RPS relates to an activity that the Environment Agency considers is potentially suitable to be an exemption under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

When you must check back

The Environment Agency will review this RPS by 1 October 2026.  

The Environment Agency can withdraw or amend this regulatory position before the review date if they consider it necessary. This includes where the activity and circumstances that this RPS relates to have not changed.

You will need to check back from time to time, including at and before the review date, to see if this RPS still applies.

This RPS remains in force until it is removed from GOV.UK or is otherwise identified as having been withdrawn. 

If you cannot comply with this RPS

If you operate under this RPS but can no longer comply with it, you must stop the activity to which this RPS relates and must tell the Environment Agency immediately.

Contact the Environment Agency

General enquiries

National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY

Email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

Telephone 03708 506 506

Telephone from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT) +44 (0) 114 282 5312

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

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