The High Court in Cardiff last week agreed River Action’s challenge of the Environment Agency’s handling of agricultural pollution in the River Wye can proceed to court. River Action argued that by failing to prevent the spread of excessive levels of manure across agricultural land in the Wye river catchment, where high phosphorus levels in […]
A new online tool which highlights where the opportunities are to install nature-based solutions, such as wetlands, to tackle road runoff pollution before it ends up in London’s rivers has gone live. The nation’s rivers are polluted. Along with sewer overflows, littering and misconnected drains, pollution from our roads adds to this cocktail of pollution. Road runoff […]
There have been numerous recent incidents of blue-green algae at the UK’s largest lake in County Armagh and elsewhere across Northern Ireland. Reported by the BBC and elsewhere, the situation at the lake, which provides 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water, has become a political issue. There have been 168 confirmed reports of toxic blue-green […]
Last week, we reported how the government has scrapped nutrient neutrality rules on new developments, under pressure from housebuilders. Whilst the official press release included favourable quotes from developers and housebuilders, reaction from others has been somewhat less enthusiastic. The body set up by the government to hold it to account on protecting and improving […]
A BBC investigation has found that three water companies – Southern Water, Thames Water and Wessex Water, illegally discharged sewage hundreds of times last year on days when it was not raining. The practice, known as “dry spilling”, is banned because it can lead to higher concentrations of sewage in waterways. The BBC says that […]
Under pressure from housebuilders, the self-proclaimed ‘greenest government ever’ has scrapped nutrient neutrality rules on new developments. The government states that over 100,000 homes held up due to defective EU laws will be unblocked between now and 2030, delivering an estimated £18 billion boost to the economy. The change will be made through an amendment […]
National Highways (NH) has published its 2030 Water Quality Plan. It sets out a high-level programme of work to mitigate all high-risk outfalls by 2030. There are 1,236 outfalls & soakaways identified by NH as having a potential high risk of pollution. Of these, 145 have a verified high risk of pollution and therefore require […]
The Environment Agency has launched a consultation on changes to variable monetary penalties – financial penalties that can be imposed for certain environmental offences. The changes will scrap the £250,000 cap on civil penalties and significantly broaden their scope to target a wider range of environmental offences. New enforcement powers will allow the Environment Agency to apply penalties […]