Largest ever fine imposed for environmental offences in Devon and Cornwall as South West Water is told by court ‘incidents of pollution will no longer be tolerated’ South West Water (SWW) has been fined more than £2 million for a series of environmental offences across Devon and Cornwall spanning a period of four years. It […]

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Defra is seeking views on the government’s proposals to enhance the monitoring of storm overflows and final effluent discharges into watercourses. This consultation closes on 23 May 2023. Consultation description The Environment Act 2021 introduced requirements for sewerage undertakers to: monitor sewerage assets and the impact they have on their local environment, and publish data […]

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From The Guardian Ecologists say some bodies of water may already have passed the tipping points from which they may never recover As David Klee nosed his boat out into the channels of Whangamarino, he saw the birds were dying. Hundreds were already dead, floating, the sheen of their feathers dulling in the scum near […]

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A speech by EA Chair Alan Lovell outlines better manage water supply. He argues that “to grip the existential risk of supply and demand we will need to ask the public to do two things: Save water, and Pay more for it.” Read the full speech Support for a £25 million penalty cap for pollution […]

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The Welsh Government has announced a new action plan to tackle phosphorus pollution. The ‘Relieving Pressures on SAC River Catchments to Support Delivery of Affordable Housing Action Plan’ has several key themes: The need for a joined-up approach and the need for fit for purpose governance and oversight arrangements to support decision making in failing […]

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Environment Agency chief executive Sir James Bevan has called an article in The Times, headlined Beach sewage inspections to be scaled back, “factually inaccurate and misleading”. He was responding to a request for information from the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, on the article’s claims that the Environment Agency has taken a decision […]

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From Environment Agency Sewage discharge equivalent of 2 Olympic sized swimming pools lasting 23 hours killed. Anglian Water has been fined more than half a million pounds. They failed to stop raw sewage being discharged into a river for 23 hours, killing 5,000 fish. Around 6 million litres of raw sewage, the equivalent of more […]

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