Loophole lets farmers pollute UK rivers with excess manure

The Guardian reports that a loophole in the UK’s pollution legislation allows farmers to pollute rivers by spreading excess manure, an investigation has found, with those acting unlawfully not facing any action in most cases.

The government introduced new farming rules for water in 2018, aimed at cleaning up England’s waterways. However, after lobbying from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), including at least two meetings with ministers, the guidance was watered down.

According to internal guidance revealed by the investigations website openDemocracy, polluting farmers may not even be informed of their rule-breaking.

Some farm businesses pollute waterways by spreading excess animal waste on their land. When it rains, this runs off into local rivers, causing nutrient pollution and in severe cases, ecosystem collapse. Natural England recently downgraded the status of the River Wye, a designated special area of conservation, due to a decline of key species. The decline is due partly to large quantities of manure being washed into the river from nearby farms.

In August 2021, the NFU met Lord Benyon, then the parliamentary undersecretary for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), to discuss the legislation. Four months later, it attended another meeting, this time with Victoria Prentis MP, then the minister of state for Defra, along with officials from the Environment Agency and the British Egg Industry Council and British Poultry Council, two trade associations representing farmers.

In response to a freedom of information request, Defra refused to release the minutes of this second meeting, claiming policymaking in this area was “still ongoing” and that releasing this information could “risk inhibiting officials from having full, frank and open discussions as part of the process of formulating policy”.

But in written evidence submitted to parliament’s environment, food and rural affairs committee, the NFU said it was decided in this meeting that an Environment Agency team tasked with implementing the legislation would have its terms of reference “rewritten” to “reflect our dialogue”.