26 Jun 2024
An investigation by Unearthed has revealed that England’s beleaguered environmental regulator has been turning up late – or not at all – to three out of every four of the country’s worst pollution incidents. Between January 2017 and October 2023, the Environment Agency (EA) missed its own response time targets for more than 3,400 serious […]
26 Jun 2024
Lots more coverage of water quality and sewage overflows again this week. Just some of the coverage…. Labour and Lib Dems step up campaigns on sewage dumping (BBC) Revealed: the ‘catastrophic scale’ of sewage spills in England and Wales (Guardian) ‘Poo in the Water’: How Financial Engineering Sullied Britain’s Most Famous River (Wall Street Journal) […]
26 Jun 2024
Great piece in the Guardian crediting beavers, reintroduced to the Knapdale rainforest in western Scotland in 2009, with creating the perfect conditions for the reintroduction of one of the country’s most endangered mammals, the water vole. The beavers’ dam-building is reshaping the forest and its waterways, creating just the right type of riverbank for water […]
26 Jun 2024
Reported in The Ecologist and elsewhere, the Supreme Court has ruled that environmental impact assessments should consider the climate impacts that would inevitably arise new projects, known as ‘Scope 3’ or ‘downstream’ emissions. The case was brought against Surrey County Council and its decision to grant planning permission for oil drilling at Horse Hill, near […]
25 Jun 2024
The North Sea herring fishing quota will be reduced by 22.5% in 2025, according to the latest bulletin of CFSE. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has proposed a reduction in the fishing quota for North Sea herring to 412,383 tons in 2025, which is a decrease of 22.5% compared to […]
19 Jun 2024
With all the main parties having now published their manifestos, what are the priorities and what do they have to say about water regulation, industry reform? Labour Put water companies into ‘special measures’. Although there is no detail on what these measures might be, they could include Giving new powers to regulators to block water […]
19 Jun 2024
Ofwat has published an updated timetable and key milestones for its 2024 price determination (PR24), after the general election necessitated a delay due to purdah rules. The regulator said it would endeavour to issue final determinations on 19 December, but that it was exploring the option of extending this until 31 January at the latest. […]
19 Jun 2024
A recent BBC explainer looks at the evidence around so-called ‘dry spills’, claiming that “every major English water company has reported data suggesting they’ve discharged raw sewage when the weather is dry – a practice which is potentially illegal.” Anglian Water responded by publishing De-mystifying dry day spills, rejecting the claims and ‘citing flawed methodology […]
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