The last paragraph of Article 245.2 of the Regulation of the Public Hydraulic Domain, approved by Royal Decree 849/1986 of 11 April, in the wording given by Royal Decree 606/2003 of 23 May, provided that the To issue authorisations for indirect discharges into surface waters, it is for the competent regional or local authority. This paragraph has been declared null and void by the judgment of the Fifth Section of the Court of Justice-Administrative of the Supreme Court of 18 October 2006. The High Court found that the allocation to local authorities of a specific competition by means of a regulatory rule was the provisions of Articles 2.2, 7.1 and 25.3 of Law No 7/1985 of 2 April 1985 on the rules of procedure Local, according to which only by a legal standard can the municipal competences be determined. The declaration of nullity has, in accordance with the provisions of Article 245.2 of the Regulation of the Hydraulic Public Domain, presumed that competition to authorize indirect discharges into surface waters will become the (a) the conditions under which the conditions of the relevant authorization are met, which means that this competence of the entities managing the waste water transmission networks in which such discharges are produced is to be dissociated. This dissociation is a clearly anomalous situation, because it is clear that only the entity which has the necessary technical and factual elements to make its monitoring and control viable should be granted the discharge authorisation. ensure that they are in line with the applicable rules, i.e. the entity to which the function of sewerage of the waters in which the discharge occurs. Therefore, in order to ensure the correct administrative action on a subject as sensitive as water quality, the two actions, the discharge authorization and the management of the conduct in which the discharge occurs, must be the responsibility of the Commission. a single entity. This competition cannot be maintained in the area of the catchment bodies, since they do not have the information required to issue such authorisations, since they do not manage the driving networks of the waters in which these discharges are produce. Therefore, the granting of authorisations under such conditions would take a high degree of irresponsibility and could have a negative impact on the networks managed by other administrations and, ultimately, on the proper control of the quality of water. In addition, the cessation or collapse in the issuance of the authorizations corresponding to the indirect discharges to the surface waters would occur, since, as established in the Law of Waters, any spill, however small is, it requires administrative authorization, without distinguishing if its destination is the sewer or the hydraulic public domain, so that, not to grant again this competence to the local entities, the basin agencies would have to process the authorisations for all discharges from industries, shops, etc., of the more than eight thousand municipalities existing in Spain, without having the necessary means to do so, since this is a completely unforeseen situation. This would generate the risk, either that the installations producing polluting substances intended to be legally discharged would have to interrupt their production activity or be conditioned by the impossibility of dumping the domain. (a) the Commission shall, in accordance with the procedure laid down in this Regulation, make a decision on the application of this Regulation. In line with the material exposure of the need for the standard made so far, it is then appropriate to highlight the extraordinary and urgent character of the project, in order to prove the fulfilment of the requirements required by Article 86 of the Constitution. First of all, the unforeseeable nature of the situation must be underlined, since in no way would it be possible to anticipate the meaning of the judgment which has given rise to it. Secondly, the need to restore the situation of competition altered by that judgment cannot be regarded as ordinary. In this case, it is not a question of the adoption of an innovative standard from the legal and material point of view, but, on the contrary, to re-establish a system of operation which, in a sudden and inopined manner, has been abolished by a resolution. jurisdiction. Therefore, the need to deal with it is extraordinary, since it has become apparent in an unpredictable way and requires an atypical and specific solution, which is the immediate reestablishment of the distribution system. (a) the powers conferred on them by the various public administrations concerned are appropriate. Finally, the urgency of the need arises is without effort from the material exposure above. The period of processing of an ordinary legal provision would cause the situation described to be considerably aggravated, resulting in two equally undesirable possibilities for action: either the irresponsible granting of the authorisations (a) to be discharged by bodies which do not have the information or the capacity to control the activity authorised, or the cessation of the administrative activity of granting authorisations until the relevant legal standard is adopted Ordinary, with the extraordinarily negative repercussions that such an option For the activity of a multitude of companies that pour into the networks of municipal collectors. In its virtue, in use of the authorisation contained in Article 86 of the Constitution, on a proposal from the Minister for the Environment and after deliberation by the Council of Ministers at its meeting on 13 April 2007,

D I S P O N G O:

Single item. Amendment of the recast text of the Water Law, approved by the Royal Legislative Decree 1/2001, of July 20.

A new paragraph 2 is introduced in article 101 of the recast text of the Water Law, approved by the Royal Legislative Decree 1/2001, of July 20, with the following wording:

" 2. The discharge authorisations shall correspond to the competent hydraulic administration, except in the case of discharges carried out at any point in the sewerage network or from collectors managed by regional or local authorities or by entities dependent on them, in which the authorization shall be the responsibility of the competent regional or local authority. "

Current paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of Article 101 are respectively converted into paragraphs 3, 4 and 5.

Single transient arrangement. Authorizations in processing by the basin organizations.

Applications for discharge authorizations that, according to the unique article of this Royal Decree-law, correspond to the regional and local authorities or to entities dependent on them and are located in processing in the basin organizations, will be resolved by those.

Final disposition first. Competence title.

This Royal Decree-Law is issued under the jurisdiction of the jurisdiction established in Article 149.1.22. and 23. of the Constitution, which respectively attribute to the State exclusive powers in legislation, ordination and (a) grant of water resources and use when water flows through more than one Autonomous Community and in basic legislation on environmental protection.

Final disposition second. Entry into force.

This Royal Decree-law will enter into force on the day of its publication in the "Official State Gazette".

Given in Madrid, on April 13, 2007.

JOHN CARLOS R.

The President of the Government, JOSÉ LUIS RODRÍGUEZ ZAPATERO