03 Apr 2024
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 […]
03 Apr 2024
According to Labour Party analysis of NHS hospital admissions statistics, waterborne diseases such as dysentery and Weil’s disease have risen by 60% since 2010 in England. Over the last year, 122 people were diagnosed with leptospirosis (Weil’s disease), double the number in 2010. The disease, which can lead to liver damage and kidney failure, is […]
26 Mar 2024
The Guardian reports that new EU rules which introduce “polluter pays” principles to get pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies to pay for the pollution they cause in rivers will not be adopted by the government in England, as campaigners say the country is falling behind. Lawmakers in Europe have signed off on an update to the urban waste […]
13 Mar 2024
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: […]
13 Mar 2024
While sewage and intensive farming pollution steal the media headlines, an eco-toxic cocktail of hydrocarbons, metals and plastics runs off our roads into rivers and streams when it rains. Stormwater Shepherds and CIWEM have been pulling together the evidence. Poly aromatic hydrocarbons are nasty, toxic organic substances. They are carcinogenic; they cause mutations and deformities in aquatic organisms and they affect their […]
06 Mar 2024
Southern Water has been fined £330,000 after raw sewage escaped into a stream near Southampton for what the company admitted could have been nearly 20 hours. Almost 2,000 fish were killed as faulty equipment at a pumping station sent untreated effluent into the environment at Waltham Chase on the edge of the South Downs. Sitting […]
28 Feb 2024
How unhealthy are our rivers? The latest Rivers Trust State of Our Rivers Report finds that: No single stretch of river in England or Northern Ireland is in good overall health. Just 15% of English, 31% of Northern Irish, and 50% of Irish river stretches reach good ecological health standards. Toxic chemicals persist in every […]
28 Feb 2024
Last week, Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency delivered a speech at the 2024 NFU Conference. He talks about flooding, dredging, pollution, water resources, funding and more. Also covered by Sky News Environment watchdog chair tells farmers to ‘do better’ on river pollution Environment Agency chair Alan Lovell acknowledged the numerous “financial pressures” on […]
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