Following last week’s publication of storm overflow spill data for 2023, covered in last week’s news, the sewage has really been hitting the fan The BBC highlighted that sewage spills into England’s rivers and seas by water companies more than doubled last year. According to the Environment Agency there were 3.6 million hours of spills […]
The Gurdian reports that the UK water industry’s ‘urgent’ plan to tackle sewage pollution has been delayed by four months, with no publication date in sight. Government ministers last year demanded water executives send them a “plan for urgent change” to tackle outflows which spill untreated human waste into rivers and seas. Last May the […]
Defra has announced that 100% of storm overflows across the water network in England have now been fitted with Event Duration Monitors (EDMs), meeting the ambitious target set by the government to do so by the end of 2023. Event Duration Monitors increase transparency by measuring how, when and for how long a storm overflow […]
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Barclay, has written to water companies asking them to improve maintenance programmes to ensure these are not a cause of storm overflow discharges. He highlights this is a legal requirement that water companies should already be delivering and states his plans to closely follow […]
Water companies are putting in solutions to improve storm overflows, including this new £1.3 million scheme in Bath from Wessex Water. Whilst the drive to reduce overflows is welcome, it would be great to see more sustainable and innovative projects coming to the fore. Read more about the Bath scheme here.
The Welsh Government has published a review of the costs and benefits of different storm overflow control policies for Wales. The analysis considers capex, opex, bill impact, benefits, net present value and carbon associated with both traditional infrastructure and “blue green” approaches. The report finds that The capital costs of removing the harmful environmental impacts […]
The government has published its response to the recent consultation on the expansion of the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan to cover coastal and estuarine waters. In summary Government expands plan to tackle storm overflows, including all coastal and estuary sites Marine protected areas and shellfish water protected areas made a priority Plan to drive […]
WildFish charity says £56bn plan to reduce sewage dumping from storm overflows is illegal because it expects customers to foot bill The legal challenge brought by WildFish, which seeks to have the Government’s sewage plan rejected as unlawful and re-written, is being heard in the High Court this week. WildFish wants the Government to: Enforce […]