Outline of regulations under the Water Pollution Control Law

The Water Pollution Control Law regulates the discharge of water discharged from factories and business establishments into public water bodies and the infiltration of water that penetrates underground, and promotes the implementation of domestic wastewater measures, etc. To prevent pollution of the water quality, thereby protecting the health of the people, preserving the living environment, and causing damage to human health liability for sewage and wastewater discharged from factories and business establishments.
In order to achieve that purpose, regulations such as the duty of notification to factories or business establishments and concentration regulations related to effluent are stipulated.

"Guide to Water Pollution Control Law (PDF: 1,472KB)" (updated in November 2024) is posted.

Factories or business establishments need to submit a notification when setting up specific facilities. The types of notifications are as follows.

Wastewater discharged from specific business establishments (factories or business establishments that have specific facilities) to public water bodies is subject to drainage standards for each drain.
Specified business establishments must not discharge effluents that do not conform to drainage standards at drainage outlets (Article 12, Paragraph 1 of the Act).
In addition, it is mandatory for specific business establishments to measure, record, and preserve the quality of the discharged water (Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the Act).

The total amount regulation is the concentration of populations and industries where it is difficult to achieve the three environmental standards of COD (chemical oxygen demand), T-N (nitrogen content), and T-P (phosphorus content) using drainage standards alone. It is a regulation that reduces the pollutant load flowing in over a wide area in closed sea area (designated area).
The designated area in Yokohama City is Tokyo Bay, and the target business site is a specific business site that drains to Tokyo Bay and public water bodies flowing into it with an average of 50m3 or more per day.
Specific business establishments in designated areas must comply with the total amount regulation standards (Article 12-2 of the Act).

In order to prevent groundwater contamination, structural standards (standards for structures, equipment, and methods of use) are established for facilities that use hazardous substances and designated hazardous substances storage facilities.
Businesses must comply with these structural standards (Article 12-4 of the Act).
In addition, in the standards for the method of use, businesses should formulate management guidelines for handling harmful substances (Article 12-4 of the Act), periodically inspect the facilities and floors, and record the results.・ Preservation is required (Article 14, Paragraph 5 of the Act).

If a specific business establishment, designated business establishment or oil storage business establishment falls under any of the following conditions due to damage to facilities or other accidents, it is necessary to immediately take emergency measures and notify the status of the accident and the contents of emergency measures. (Article 14-2 of the Act).
・When hazardous substances, designated substances, or oils may flow into public water bodies such as rivers and seas or penetrate underground.
・When living environment items may exceed drainage standards (only specific business sites)

We publish list of specific business establishments in the city based on Water Pollution Control Law (as of the end of last fiscal year).