Retention charge – a new economic instrument in water management

Abstract

One of the economic instruments of water management in Polish law is a fee for the reduction of natural terrain retention as a result of carrying out, on a property with an area of more than 3,500 m2 , works or construction facilities permanently connected to the ground, which have the effect of reducing this retention by excluding more than 70% of the area of the property from the biologically active surface in areas not covered by open or closed sewage systems. The introduction of a fee obligation, to the above extent, is an unknown legal solution, prior to the entry into force of the Water Law Act. The subject of the study is an analysis of the material and temporal premises and issues related to the construction of the retention fee, with particular emphasis on the doubts and discrepancies in the interpretation of the applicable provisions of the law.