What happens if you do not comply

It helps to separate two kinds of non-compliance that get conflated: the water user’s and the verifying unit’s.

On the user’s side

The duty to measure sits in the Federal Duties Act, and the duty to have and maintain the device in the National Waters Act. ^{1 2}

The practical consequence is fiscal before it is administrative: duties are calculated on the volume used, and without valid measurement that volume is determined by other means, which rarely favour the holder. The penalties provided by the National Waters Act come on top.

The amounts and specific triggers live in those two acts and are updated. Check the provision in force before estimating exposure: any figure written here would age badly.

On the unit’s side

Approval as a Verification Unit is conditional on meeting the obligations the resolution itself lists. Breaching any of them exposes the unit to the penalties and legal consequences set out in the General Rules, independently of any others under the applicable legal framework. ^{3 4}

The harshest penalty is not a fine: it is suspension or revocation of the approval. And since approval depends on accreditation, losing one drags the other with it.

What can be done about a decision

Final decisions admit an administrative appeal within fifteen business days of notification, in writing, before the authority itself. ⁵

The useful reading

Almost every breach that ends in a penalty began as a date nobody was watching. An expired report costs far less to prevent than to explain.