In his weekly column James write about the use of overflows and new legislation to tackle unacceptable sewage discharges into rivers and coastal waters.
Heavy rainfall has again highlighted the unacceptable issue of storm overflows releasing sewage into rivers and coastal waters. After recent downpours, the Environment Agency warned people not to swim in the waters off several beaches which caused understandable concern and anger.
The issue is that the combined sewage systems built by the Victorians means that rainwater from drains and sewage use the same pipes underground and at times of high rainfall the pipes reach capacity. To stop sewage backing up and escaping into people’s homes and streets, the system was designed to discharge diluted waste to rivers or the sea via combined sewer overflows.
This is deeply unpleasant and damaging to the environment. I strongly oppose the use of storm overflows discharging sewage. As a MP, I have lobbied ministers, spoken in the House of Commons condemning them, supported bids to enhance chalk streams in North West Norfolk, and led a Public Accounts Committee inquiry into water regulation.
The good news is that for the first-time action is being taken through the Environment Act 2021 to reduce and eliminate their use. So as I enjoyed a short staycation on the North Norfolk coast, I was surprised to read on social media that MPs voted to allow sewage to be pumped into rivers and seas. Sadly, this is just the latest example of disinformation designed to encourage twitter attacks.
The reality is that during the passage of that legislation through Parliament, there was an amendment to immediately stop the use of sewage overflows. So why didn’t it pass? Well, much as everyone may wish to end this at the stroke of a pen or even a tweet, it was totally impractical and would have meant the flooding of homes with sewage happened. It ignored the cost of changing pipe infrastructure in almost every village, town, and city which independent evidence estimated could cost from £5,000 to £25,000 per household. And there was no mechanism to enforce it.
Instead of an impractical, uncosted, and unenforceable proposal, Conservative MPs voted for an approach that places a legal duty on water companies to reduce the adverse impacts of discharges from storm overflows. The government is required to deliver a plan by September with new mandatory time-bound targets on water companies to stop the environmental harm from these unacceptable sewage overflows.
To make sure investment to deliver improvements is prioritised the government has directed the industry’s economic regulator, Ofwat, to require that water companies take steps to “significantly reduce storms overflows” and to approve funding to achieve this. And Ofwat will enforce the legal duty with sanctions including fines. The need is clear when last year the Environment Agency and Ofwat launched a major investigation into water companies illegally discharging sewage into the environment.
Water companies can be in no doubt how the public feels about the urgent need to address this issue. Storm overflows are used in many countries and the UK is the first one that has put legislation in place to reduce their use and impact. Water companies and the regulator must be held to account to deliver.
This article first appeared in the Lynn News on 26 August 2022.
