First and foremost, despite the narrative, NO, we didn’t vote to dump sewage in the sea. Quite the opposite, we voted to place a legal duty on water companies to reduce sewage pollution and included a robust enforcement mechanism to fine water companies who fail to take action. More below:
Back at the time of the vote last year I wrote this piece which is worth reading:
https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/news/duncan-baker-column-environment-bill-8453834
I was actually one of the leading campaigners through my environmental work on the Environmental Audit Select Committee. One of our inquiries was into the water quality of our rivers. It was our findings that brought this awful situation to the government’s attention before incorporating new laws into the Environment Act.
So what is this all about?
We have millions upon millions of miles of sewers in the UK. We have just had some flash flooding which has caused the recent situation to hit the headlines. Storm drains or combined sewage systems mean that rainwater from drains and sewage use the same pipes underground. At times of high rainfall – for example during recent flash flooding – the pipes reach capacity, and to stop sewage escaping into homes and streets, the system was designed to discharge to rivers or the sea via Combined Sewer Overflows. This is a system where much of the infrastructure was built in the Victorian era.
This has to be addressed and it is, because it has significant environmental impacts. The government took action to regulate and reduce the number of storm overflows in the Environment Act 2021. This required the government to set out a plan by 1 September 2022 to tackle the problem. The plan was published for consultation in March and proposes new mandatory time-bound targets on water companies to stop the environmental harm from sewage overflows.
Did I vote to allow sewage to be pumped into our rivers and sea?
No-one did – in fact MPs voted to increase the restrictions of water companies using overflows. During the passage of the Environment Act through parliament, the Duke of Wellington proposed an amendment to immediately stop the use of sewage overflows. Not only is this practically infeasible without flooding people’s homes with sewage, he hadn’t considered the cost to consumers – independent evidence commissioned by the Storm Overflows Taskforce estimated total elimination of overflows could cost up to £600bn. The government agreed an alternative approach, mandating progressive reductions in discharges and agreeing targets that the water companies must achieve, which will be set out in the final plan, which prioritises dealing with the environmental and public health impacts first while also balancing this with the cost to consumers.
Is this happening more than ever?
One of the reasons that there are more reports of these discharges is that the government has required water companies to monitor more of their overflow pipes. In 2016 only 800 were monitored, by 2020 over 12,000 were monitored and water companies are obliged to monitor all 15,000 by next year. We know about more incidents because there are more monitors and it is factually inaccurate to compare the number of discharges in 2016 to 2021. However, we know climate change and population growth mean the risk will increase – which is why the government has taken significant action.
What happens next?
We’ve had storm overflows in this country for at least 150 years. This is the first government that’s taking action to fix the problem. We’ve already laid the foundations for that with new powers and new responsibilities in the Environment Act last year, and Defra will publish its storm overflow plan next month. We are not letting water companies get away with this and have been repeatedly clear that water companies’ reliance on overflows is unacceptable and they must significantly reduce how much sewage they discharge as a priority. Our regulators have also launched the largest criminal and civil investigations into water company sewage discharges
This is on top of ambitious action we have already taken, including consulting on targets to improve water quality which will act as a powerful tool to deliver cleaner water, pushing all water companies to go further and faster to fix overflows.
And finally
Between 2020 and 2025, water companies will invest £7.1 billion on environmental improvements in England. Of this, £3.1 billion will be invested in storm overflow improvements specifically.
In March 2022, the Government published the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan consultation. This sets out plans to revolutionise how water companies tackle the number of discharges of untreated sewage. Water companies will face strict limits on when they can use storm overflows and must completely eliminate the harm any sewage discharge causes to the environment
Since 2013, we have significantly increased transparency around storm overflows, with 100% monitoring coverage expected by the end of 2023. Additionally, the Environment Act requires data about spills to be published in near real time, which will allow government, regulators and the public to monitor performance and water companies must also implement monitoring of the environmental impact of their discharges.
