Southern Water is launching a task force to cut storm overflows by 80 per cent by 2030 as part of the company’s zero tolerance approach to pollution – customers have made it clear the use of storm releases is no longer acceptable. Ian McAulay, Southern Water’s CEO, said: ”There is a growing call to take […]
Environment Bill storm overflows amendment Defra ‘There has been widespread coverage including in BBC News Online, the Independent the Guardian, the Express, the Sun, the Daily Mirror and the Press Association of the passing of the government’s amendment to the Environment Bill on storm overflows in the House of Commons yesterday evening. The new amendment strengthens the Environment Bill to ensure […]
Since the sheer mind boggling scale of the 400,000 events a year was revealed. At the height of the row over how Conservative MPs voted against a duty for water companies to control sewage pollution, especially from CSOs, the weekend before the now notorious Government U turn. MPs were actively telling their constituents on social […]
From the outset of the Cameron Conservative Government their mantra has been ‘As Conservatives, we are committed to leaving the environment in better condition than we inherited it’. If anyone was looking for evidence of how that hasn’t happened they need look no further that sewage pollution of rivers and the coast and the shambolic U turn of the last […]
Record £90m fine for Southern Water following EA prosecution Environment Agency ‘Southern Water sentenced to pay record £90 million in fines for widespread pollution after pleading guilty to 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges. Southern Water has today (Friday 9 July) been handed a record £90 million fine after pleading guilty to thousands of illegal discharges of […]
Work by Professor Peter Hammond published in a scientific journal is covered in the Guardian. It has prompted a meeting between him and Rebecca Pow, the Defra Minister responsible. Water Briefing ‘Government to hear evidence that unlawful discharge of raw sewage into rivers at least 10 times greater than prosecutions suggest. The Government is due to […]
This latest Thames water major pollution incident is a timely reminder for the Environmental Audit Committee and their work on water quality in rivers (watch the evidence) of the growing risks of major storms driving significant pollution events. Thames Water has depressing recent record of sewage pollution incidents. Thames Water fined £4 million after catastrophic […]
From the 1960s marine pollution was one of the main drivers of the growing awareness of the need to protect the marine environment. Dumping waste at sea, high profile oil spills, sewage pollution and variety of toxic chemicals like methyl mercury and TBT were the drivers. The fashion now is ‘plastic pollution’ but the reality […]