Well Use Per­mit is a reg­u­la­to­ry autho­riza­tion doc­u­ment that grants the right to abstract ground­wa­ter and sur­face water for use in eco­nom­ic activ­i­ties, as well as to dis­charge water into water bod­ies after use.

What is special water use?

Spe­cial water use (SWU) is the abstrac­tion of ground­wa­ter or sur­face water from water bod­ies and water­cours­es, includ­ing streams, rivers, nat­ur­al and arti­fi­cial reser­voirs (lakes, ponds, reser­voirs), springs and ground­wa­ter, as well as sea­wa­ter, and the dis­charge of pol­lu­tants after water use back into water bod­ies. The reg­u­la­tion gov­ern­ing spe­cial water use is defined in the Water Code of Ukraine. Spe­cial water use may be car­ried out for the pur­pos­es of pub­lic water sup­ply, med­ical and health use, indus­tri­al needs of enter­pris­es, and oth­er relat­ed pur­pos­es.

Who may carry out special water use?

Legal enti­ties and indi­vid­u­als may car­ry out spe­cial water use exclu­sive­ly on the basis of a spe­cial water use per­mit, which is issued by the ter­ri­to­r­i­al bod­ies of the State Agency of Water Resources of Ukraine. Appli­ca­tions for issuance, reis­suance, or can­cel­la­tion of a spe­cial water use per­mit may be sub­mit­ted by busi­ness enti­ties in paper or elec­tron­ic form. The use of water resources by tech­ni­cal means and facil­i­ties (water intakes, wells) with­out a Spe­cial Water Use Per­mit (SWU) is pro­hib­it­ed and entails dis­ci­pli­nary, admin­is­tra­tive, civ­il, or crim­i­nal lia­bil­i­ty.

Validity period of the SWU permit

The SWU per­mit is grant­ed to the appli­cant free of charge; how­ev­er, a fee is charged by the state for the actu­al spe­cial water use. The valid­i­ty peri­od of a spe­cial water use per­mit may range from 3 to 25 years, depend­ing on the needs of the enter­prise or indi­vid­ual. If nec­es­sary, the water use peri­od may be extend­ed for the same term upon appli­ca­tion by the water user.

Required documents to obtain an SWU

• Jus­ti­fi­ca­tion of water demand for own activ­i­ties, includ­ing cal­cu­la­tions in accor­dance with stan­dards for water use and waste­water dis­charge with a month­ly break­down.
• A graph­i­cal scheme and tex­tu­al descrip­tion of water abstrac­tion points and water dis­charge points after use.
• Reg­u­la­to­ry cal­cu­la­tions for each indi­vid­ual dis­charge into water bod­ies con­tain­ing pol­lu­tants.
• Approved tech­no­log­i­cal stan­dards for potable water use.
• Copies of doc­u­ments con­firm­ing the right to use water bod­ies.

Water quality control

Water that, by its inher­ent char­ac­ter­is­tics, is used as a base­line in cal­cu­la­tions is con­sid­ered back­ground qual­i­ty. When deter­min­ing the capac­i­ty of a water body to assim­i­late pol­lu­tants, the pos­si­bil­i­ties of dilu­tion, mix­ing, and the self-purifi­ca­tion capac­i­ty of the water body with respect to impu­ri­ties are tak­en into account.