Water

Carlisle City Council work in partnership with both The Environment Agency and United Utilities to ensure all aspects of water quality and pollution are monitored and dealt with efficiently.

Drinking Water

  • The Drinking Water Inspectorate (external link) are responsible for assessing the quality of our drinking water and, when necessary, taking enforcement action should the water be found unfit for human consumption.
  • United Utilities Plc (external link) are required to sample drinking water and notify Carlisle City Council of the results on a regular basis to ensure that any water supplies found to contain pollutants in exceedance of the World Health Organization levels are dealt with efficiently.   United Utilities also have an advice booklet on how to prevent problems with water quality in the home. (external link) 
  • Further information regarding the water quality in your area can be found at United Utilities. (external link) 

Public Open Waters

Pollution incidents that affect Public Open Waters such as canals, rivers and ponds are controlled by the Environment Agency. (external link) If you need to report pollution of a local watercourse please contact the Environment Agency Incident Hotline on 0800 807060.

Private Water Supplies

The Environment Agency (external link) is responsible for authorising a license for extraction of water from a borehole for a private water supply.

The Private Water Supply Regulations also require premises that extract water for human consumption to be monitored and risk assessed to  ensure the water quality is satisfactory. This is carried out on a frequency set by the Private Water supply (England) Regulations 2009 and the cost of  sampling and analysis is a chargeable service. See the fees and charges below. Further information on Private water supplies please contact 01228 817559.

Fees - Private Water Supply Sampling
The charges for private water supply sampling analysis will vary depending on the supplies risk assessment. All monitoring and analysis costs will be set at the price charged by the laboratory which the Council will recover. The analysis costs are currently;

  • Bacteriological only                         £12.20
  • Check Monitoring                            £42.20
  • Audit Monitoring (maximum)          £435.00

Plus each visit will incur a sampling charge.  If a risk assessment or another investigation is carried out or an authorisation granted there are additional charges as follows:-

  • Sampling (each visit)                                             £  80.00
  • Risk Assessment                                                   £100.00
  • Other investigations (each investigation)              £100.00

Granting an authorisation (each authorisation) £50


Cumbria County CouncilDirect.Gov
Allerdale Borough Council logoEden District Council logo

Contact us

 01228 817000

Carlisle City Council
Civic Centre, Carlisle, Cumbria,
CA3 8QG