The Sustainable Solutions for Water and Nature (SSWAN) partnership has published an outline of a new model and discussion paper for regulation of the water environment. The new SSWAN model shifts regulation towards catchment-based approaches to support cheaper, more innovative, more collaborative projects that more accurately reflect local priorities. SSWAN proposes a four-tier regulatory framework: […]
The Drinking Water Inspectorate has published new research on dual pipe recycling systems to understand the associated risks and to assess the suitability of English and Welsh regulations to manage the risks from evolving systems. The research project found that many large-scale dual pipe systems in the UK have either been mothballed or have never […]
Reported in the Los Angeles Times California is set to adopt regulations that will allow for sewage to be extensively treated, transformed into pure drinking water and delivered directly to people’s taps. The regulations are expected to be approved Tuesday (19 December) by the State Water Resources Control Board, enabling water suppliers to begin building […]
Measuring Ofwat’s Impact presents an assessment of the benefits that the organisation generates as the economic regulator of the water sector. The report finds that Ofwat delivers customer benefits worth at least £1.13bn a year, against an average annual budget of around £30m. it focuses on three of its key work areas: the price review, casework […]
The government has set out plans for an alternative transitional registration model (ATRm) to support UK REACH transitional registrations. This is “in response to concerns raised by the chemicals industry about the significant cost to businesses of accessing EU data packages”. According to the government, “This document outlines the government’s plans for an alternative transitional […]
The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a new report ‘Regulating to achieve environmental outcomes’, in which it scrutinises whether Defra is using regulation effectively in pursuit of its environmental agenda. It found green improvements, including those relating to water, are being put at risk by shortcomings in Defra’s oversight of regulation. According to the report, […]
A recently published piece of analysis completed by Wildlife & Countryside LINK has found that the cost of dropping or weakening EU environmental laws in only 4 sectors could reach £82bn over 30 years. There are over 1000 laws in the Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill, so the real cost of weakened protections for nature […]
Environment Agency chief executive Sir James Bevan has called an article in The Times, headlined Beach sewage inspections to be scaled back, “factually inaccurate and misleading”. He was responding to a request for information from the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, on the article’s claims that the Environment Agency has taken a decision […]