Until the establishment of the Czech Environmental Inspectorate (1991), water protection was supervised by the State Water Management Inspectorate (later the Czech Water Management Inspectorate), established in 1960 as an expert control body for water management. Only by incorporating into the Czech Environmental Inspectorate this institution became a state administration body in the water management sector with the authority to impose financial sanctions and remedial measures.
The main responsibility of the Water Protection Unit is to supervise compliance with Act No. 254/2001 Coll., on water and the regulations and decisions issued pursuant to it. This activity includes inspections at sources of pollution, or threats to the communal, industrial, and agricultural spheres. The Inspectorate is obliged to require the removal of detected deficiencies and defects, their causes and harmful consequences, and to impose measures for their removal and correction and to fine the culprits. In the event that there is a very serious threat to the environment, the Inspectorate is entitled to order the stoppage of production or other activities that cause the threat until the deficiencies or their causes are eliminated.
The Inspectorate mainly focuses its supervision on:
- discharge of wastewater into surface and underground waters,
- discharge of wastewater containing particularly dangerous harmful substances into public sewers,
- construction, operation and maintenance of wastewater treatment plants and other facilities to neutralize, reduce or eliminate water pollution,
- protection of surface and underground waters from contamination by harmful substances, which occurs mainly when these substances are handled on a larger scale,
- underground and surface water withdrawals.
In the case of accidental releases of harmful substances into water, the Inspectorate is one of the authorities entitled to investigate their causes, to impose measures to eliminate these causes and to sanction detected deficiencies. Since the effective date of Act No. 254/2001 Coll., the Inspectorate keeps a central record of accidents threatening the quality of surface and underground water.
A specific problem is the contamination of groundwater, rock environment, buildings and inadequate landfills that arose before privatization. The Inspectorate imposes decisions on corrective measures and continuously monitors their implementation.
Since 2000, when Act No. 353/1999 Coll., on the prevention of serious accidents caused by selected dangerous chemical substances and chemical preparations, came into force, which was replaced by Act No. 59/2006 Coll. from June 1, 2006, and this Act was subsequently replaced by Act No. 224/2015 Coll. from October 1, 2015, the Water Protection Unit represents the CEI also in the agenda of this Act.