On Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:32:28 +0000, David Hansen wrote:

I suspect that such permission would only be necessary above a
certain size of boiler. A little bit of condensate from household
boilers won't pollute watercourses, even if it drips directly into a
stream.

And presumably the point about a buffer-filled soakaway is that its
effluent shouldn't be a particular pollutant (except of calcium
bicarbonate or whatever makes for hard water). Also, presumably, you
should renew the contents of the soakaway every so often, though practical
values of 'so often' may be greater than maximum expected boiler lifetimes.