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By Bob Fear
- Environment
Water firms inEngland and Wales have been illegally dumping raw sewage into rivers and thesea on a regular basis, according to recent investigations and inquiries.Underfunding and a failure to enforce water quality has been blamed. We lookinto how our waterways have become so seriously damaged.
Water companies are allowed to pump untreated sewage intothe UK’s rivers and surrounding seas when too much rainfall threatens thecapacity of their water tanks. This prevents sewage from backing up into our streetsand homes. The water firms should screen their raw sewage before they dischargeit.
During heavy rain or a storm, the amount of water flowinginto your local wastewater treatment works might be more than they can properlytreat. When this happens, the water companies divert untreated water into stormtanks, if they have enough of them. After a storm subsides, the water in thestorm tanks should then be returned and treated as normal.
However, if rain is particularly heavy or a storm continuesfor a while then, according to Ofwat (the regulator of the privatised watercompanies), the water firms are allowed to ‘release the extra incoming rainwater and dilutedwastewater into the environment, normally after partial treatment by settlementby storm tanks or through storm overflows into a river or sea’. The permitsthat allow the water companies to do this are enforced by the UK government’sEnvironment Agency. These permits specify how much waste water must be treatedbefore the firms can then pump untreated sewage into our rivers and seas.
TheEnvironment Agency revealed that water companies in England dumped raw sewageinto rivers over 400,000 times in 2020. This means that untreated watercontaminated with human waste entered our waterways for more than three millionhours over the year. The agency said that these overflows were ‘a necessarypart of the existing sewerage system’ and that wet wipes are the main cause ofblockages in the sewers. If we stop flushing wet wipes and pouring fat andgrease down the drain we could help prevent most sewer blockages, theysuggested.
In 2021,a BBC investigation found that most water companies in England and Wales wereillegally dumping raw sewage into our rivers. Eight of the eleven firms werebreaching their permits by releasing untreated wastewater before treating theamount they are supposed to. Welsh Water illegally dumped raw sewage for 12consecutive days in 2020, while one Thames Water site breached its permit on 43days and another released sewage almost continuously for three months.
WhileOfwat and the Environment Agency were investigating these breaches, in early2022 the Environmental Audit Committee (a cross-party group of MPs monitoringthe environmental impact of all government departments) claimed that untreatedwastewater was regularly being illegally dumped. Seven water companies pumpedraw sewage onto our coast more than 3,000 times from 2017 to 2021. Thecommittee complained that self-monitoring by the industry had led tounacceptably high unpermitted sewage discharges, urging regulators and watercompanies to ‘get a grip’.
Thechairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, Philip Dunne, said: ‘Our inquiryhas uncovered multiple failures in the monitoring, governance and enforcementon water quality. For too long, the Government regulators and the water industryhave allowed a Victorian sewerage system to buckle under increasing pressure.’
‘The decision by water companies and the government to view rivers as placesthat can absorb pollution has turned these precious watercourses into all butan open sewer,’ said Surfers Against Sewage, a national marine conservation andcampaigning charity, in their 2021 Water Quality Report. ‘This sorry state ofaffairs is a result of weakened legislation and a defunded regulator, which hasallowed the monolithic water industry to operate with near impunity –self-regulating and reporting pollution when it feels like it.’
The tradeassociation representing the water companies, Water UK, has acknowledgedthe ‘urgent need for action to tacklethe harm caused to the environment by overflows’. The Environment Agencyresponded by saying ‘we will not hesitate to pursue the water companiesconcerned, and take appropriate action’.
In themeantime, the Environment Act of 2021 now legally binds all water companies toprovide transparent, year-round data on their sewage discharges. The RiversTrust, an environmental charity dedicated to the conservation of our rivers,has created an online map <https://www.theriverstrust.org/key-issues/sewage-in-rivers>which shows exactly where the sewerage network discharges and overflows intorivers. Also, Surfers Against Sewage has created the Safer Seas and Rivers Service<https://www.sas.org.uk/map/>,an app which tracks sewage overflows and pollution risk forecasts,monitoring water quality at over 400 locations around our rivers andcoastlines.
Sources:
bbc.co.uk
ofwat.gov.uk
Independent.co.uk
sas.org.uk
theriverstrust.org
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