11 Oct 2022

The Crown Estate (TCE) has published ‘Refined Areas of Search’ for potential futures sites for floating offshore wind.     In July 2022, TCE announced the potential locations of floating offshore wind development in the Celtic Sea. At that time TCE identified five ‘areas of search’ off the coasts of Cornwall and Wales with the […]

11 Oct 2022

Amendment to treaty on dumping of waste at sea will remove sewage sludge from list of wastes which may be given dumping permit. ​   The amendment to the London Protocol will remove sewage sludge from the list of permissible wastes – wastes which may be considered for dumping at sea. Parties to the treaties […]

11 Oct 2022

A minister has said he will “seriously” consider a study that claimed a toxic chemical was more likely to have caused mass shellfish deaths than algae.     Last week we reported that new research carried out by several universities commissioned by the fishing industry said pyridine, which could have been released by dredging, was […]

06 Oct 2022

England and Wales water regulator Ofwat hands out financial penalties to 11 firms for missing supply, biodiversity, pollution and sewer flooding goals. Overall, for those 11 companies, almost £150m is planned to be taken off customers’ bills in the next financial year because of missed targets Ofwat has announced.     Ofwat went on to […]

06 Oct 2022

How old is your water? It may seem like a peculiar question at first, but there are real implications to how long a drop of water has spent underground. Research suggests that the water cycle is speeding up in some places as a result of human enterprise.     Scientists at UC Santa Barbara discovered […]

06 Oct 2022

The Environment Agency has released a report on salmonid and fisheries statistics for 2021. The report covers England and Wales and provides a summary of the declared catches of salmon, sea trout, eels, smelt and lamprey by rods, nets and other fishing instruments for 2021. It covers England, Wales and the Border Esk in Scotland. […]

06 Oct 2022

The Environment Secretary has announced that the potential civil penalty is to rise from £250,000 to up to £250 million to help bring quicker enforcement action against water companies for causing pollution.     The Minister will bring forward proposals to raise the civil penalty for water companies who pollute the environment by 1,000-fold. The […]

06 Oct 2022

Investment zones with “liberalised” planning laws to accelerate development could be designated within national parks and in the most environmentally protected areas of the UK, government documents reveal and reported in the Guardian.     Details of the government’s new zones to increase housebuilding and commercial development reveal councils can apply for zones in national parks, […]