Combined Sewer Overflows Explained
Recently we have seen prominent coverage in the Guardian which claims that untreated human waste was released into streams and rivers for more than 1.5 million hours in 2019.
There are a number of points that are important to put this article into context.
England has a combined sewage system made up of hundreds of thousands of kilometres of sewers, built by the Victorians, in many urban centres. This means that clean rainwater and waste water from toilets, bathrooms and kitchens are conveyed in the same pipe to a sewage treatment works.
During heavy rainfall the capacity of these pipes can be exceeded, which means possible inundation of sewage works and the potential to back up and flood peoples’ homes, roads and open spaces, unless it is allowed to spill elsewhere. Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) were developed as overflow valves to reduce the risk of sewage backing up during heavy rainfall.
Overflows of diluted sewage during heavy rainfall are not a sign that the system is faulty. Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) are a necessary part of the existing sewerage system, preventing sewage from flooding homes and businesses.
The role of the Environment Agency
The Environment Agency works closely with water companies to ensure that they are closely monitoring and reporting back on their discharge activity. This data is helping us to understand where the system is not operating as it should, so that water companies can target investigations and investment.
We have already identified over 700 overflows to be investigated and 40 overflows to be improved within the period 2020-2025.
There is still much to do to improve the quality of our water. When water companies do damage the environment, whether it is through polluting our waters or breaching permit conditions, we take enforcement action against them including civil sanctions. We successfully brought forward four water company prosecutions in 2019, resulting in £1,297,000 in fines.
We are also working closely with Defra and Ofwat to drive further improvements. As a result in 2019, Ofwat introduced a package of allowances and incentives for the next five years, setting water companies the challenge of reducing pollution incidents by a third, also requiring them to invest £4.8 billion in environmental improvements. Since privatisation, water and sewerage companies have improved over 7,000 overflows to secure water quality and amenity benefits Meanwhile we all have a part to play in improving how we use our sewer system.
CSOs can discharge through misuse of the system. Wet wipes make up more than 90 per cent of the material causing sewers to block. We work with partners to raise awareness of this issue and the need to reduce the pressure put on the sewerage system through the #BinIt4Beaches campaigns.
By keeping our sewers free of wet wipes and other sanitary products as well as ensuring fats, oils and grease are not poured down the sink, we can help reduce the need for CSOs.
Open water swimming
We also recognise the growing popularity in open water swimming, with many people enjoying wild swimming in rivers. Public Health England and the Environment Agency offer advice as part of the existing ‘swim healthy’ guidance which is available to read before making any decision on swimming.’ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/swim-healthy-leaflet/swim-healthy
However, most bathing occurs in coastal waters, for which there are over 400 designated bathing waters in England. There aren’t yet any rivers designated for bathing in England.
Rivers and other open water locations that are not designated as bathing waters are managed for the purpose of protecting fish and wildlife, so health risks from swimming at these locations may be higher than at designated bathing waters.
Managing rivers for bathing presents new challenges in controlling sources of pollution and minimising health risks to create waters suitable for swimming.
For information on over 400 designated bathing waters in England visit www.gov.uk/quality-of-local-bathing-water.
57 comments
Comment by Mike Matthews posted on
So 7000 overflows improved in 30 years is a rate of 233.3 a year. Good stuff! 40 in the next 5years is 8 a year and that sounds a tad low. So low it suggests your figures are wrong. I'm sure the Guardian will have a calculator to hand to.
Finally tracking total hours of operation in this way as the population grows might be a reasonably sound metric to use so well done the Guardian
Comment by Judson Witham posted on
Let's discuss the Royals mess in North America .... https://adirondackslakegeorgefreepress.wordpress.com/flushing-the-saint-lawrence-basin-for-billions/
Comment by Neill Foster posted on
I have looked without success for a definition of "heavy rainfall".
Comment by Sbun posted on
“During heavy rainfall the capacity of these pipes can be exceeded, which means possible inundation of sewage works and the potential to back up and flood peoples’ homes, roads and open spaces, unless it is allowed to spill elsewhere.”
Clearly the pipes, or the sewage works capacities, are too small, and require investment so that this doesn’t happen. This is what the companies are supposed to do with the money that they get from customers, but instead they take a lot of profit. This is what people are angry about.
Also, the report states how the companies are releasing sewage very often, far more than is justified, and very often when there is not the level of “heavy rainfall” that justifies these releases. People think they are doing it to save money / make profit.
Personally I don’t directly blame the EA, as it is a wider fault of DEFRA and the government, and the system we have. But with this sort of weak argument justifying the actions of water companies, instead of calling them out for this behaviour (which is your job) people think you are failing the public. If you can’t do anything about the situation you should at least be monitoring it properly (which you are not currently doing fully) instead of allowing companies to self-report, and providing the information to the public, who pay for you and pay for the water companies.
Also, it is shocking that this information had to come from a FOI request. What possible justification is there for withholding this information (about the number of times sewage is released) other than to avoid looking like you are failing to do your job to ensure we have the cleanest rivers possible? As I said before, this sort of defensive argument does you no favours. Why not admit that many water companies are regularly polluting rivers when they should not be doing so?
Comment by Poo sticks posted on
Blaming it on Victorian pipes seems a rather lame excuse. Are we honestly saying it worked well when it was put in over a hundred years ago so there is no reason why it should ever require updating for the next 1000 years?
Comment by Rat Walton posted on
What the EA are avoiding telling everyone is that the UK Foreign Owned Privatised Water and Sewage Companies are legally allowed by the EA/Govt to dump and discharge Raw Sewage and Hazardous Wastes via the CSO's, before anything reaches a sewage works and even direct from a sewage works via the CSO's. The Angling Trust and Fish Legal challenged this some years ago, Read – You may be quite shocked at what went on and still is, no doubt.
ANGLING TRUST – FISH LEGAL 2008
COMBINED SEWAGE OVERFLOWS (CSOS) AND DEEMED CONSENTS .
Fish Legal tackles unfinished business from the time of water privatisation….
Way back in 1989, at the time of water privatisation, the water companies were granted temporary (also sometimes known as ‘deemed’) consents for many thousands of discharges carrying storm sewage into English and Welsh rivers. This followed the discovery, immediately pre-privatisation, that vast numbers of these discharges had no legal consent (a limit on the levels of permitted pollution). At the time, it was quite clear that the granting of temporary consents was supposed to be a quick fix for a couple of years at most, designed to enable the Government of the day to sell the water companies into private hands with no potential criminal liabilities.
Last year, Fish Legal made requests under freedom of information law to the Environment Agency which revealed that between 3,000 and 4,000 of these temporary consents, granted almost twenty years ago, still existed. None of them had any properly enforceable conditions, meaning they were as good as useless in controlling pollution. This request made to the Agency followed a series of cases of damage to our members’ fisheries caused by sewage discharges from pipes that still enjoyed these temporary consents.
In 2008, Fish Legal threatened to judicially review the Agency if it failed to deal finally with these deemed consents promptly. As a result, the Agency decided, in April of this year, to impose a set of standard conditions on all those discharges in order to bring them into proper regulation.
It is those standard conditions against which the water plcs have now, quite shamelessly, appealed. Fish Legal has subsequently made information requests to all water companies concerned in the appeals asking for detailed information about the CSOs and other discharges involved, including asking for records of pollution incidents.
It is Fish Legal’s belief that the water companies do not know what is discharged from these CSOs and therefore they are simply not in a position to claim that the new determined consents are too onerous.
There will be a Planning Inspectorate hearing in due course to determine these appeals and Fish Legal hopes to make significant representations to that hearing. Our work on this issue was featured in Private Eye in November (see p.29 of Eye No. 1,249).
http://www.anglingtrust.net/core/core_picker/download.asp?id=956
The arguments between the companies and the EA centred on a set of conditions which would make it an offence, for instance, to cause a deterioration in the quality of water in rivers and lakes. Such conditions have now been omitted, leaving a consent which permits the lawful use of the CSOs except in the narrowest of circumstances.
Fish Legal – which had been invited to take part as an interested party at the hearing in support of the EA – argued that it had investigated pollutions in England caused by discharging CSOs and that the very basic terms of deemed consents had meant that the Agency had been unable to regulate or enforce despite the scale of the damage caused to the environment.’..
Worth a read of the outcome....Fish Legal, the legal arm of the Angling Trust, has reacted with dismay to the news that six water companies have won their appeal against the decision of Environment Agency (EA) to provide proper regulation for the thousands of unregulated Combined Sewage Overflows (CSOs) in England and Wales. https://www.anglingtrust.net/news.asp?section=29&itemid=528
Comment by Judson Witham posted on
Wow .... What a RACKET .... https://adirondackslakegeorgefreepress.wordpress.com/flushing-the-saint-lawrence-basin-for-billions/
Comment by Windrushwasp posted on
You say : When water companies do damage the environment, whether it is through polluting our waters or breaching permit conditions, we take enforcement action against them including civil sanctions. We successfully brought forward four water company prosecutions in 2019, resulting in £1,297,000 in fines.
It seems that most pollutions are not attended,''action'' is seldom taken and most offences are ignored, undiscovered or even covered up.
4 prosecutions - are you serious? The whole agency achieved 4 prosecutions nationally? No wonder it is cheaper to pollute. Not exactly building any experience for your staff unless there are just 4 of them. The industry must be delighted - especially with you trying to defend the shocking abuses and incompetence revealed by the Guardian.
Comment by Sjmalin posted on
Investment in their failing systems should forced on the water companies. My local river is a shadow of its former self (Windrush, West Oxon).
Comment by Anna posted on
It's an absolute atrocity that water companies are profiting from polluting our water ways. ALl profits made from customers should be put into stopping untreated sewerage entering water ways.
Comment by Michael Wingrove posted on
I am old enough to remember when the water companies were sold off to private enterprise with the promise that these companies would invest in the outdated infrastructure and bring our rivers and seas up to European standards (currently failing).
Needless to say that hasn't happened because private companies are more interested in looking after shareholders by doing the bare minimum to the infrastructure and investing in the future.
You are the only organisation who can force these changes to happen. No more houses or commercial premises should be allowed to connect to these overwhelmed sewers until the necessary improvements have been made because that is a big part of the growing problem.
Any approvals that you grant to water authorities should make it clear that overflows of sewage must only happen during extreme weather events and not every time we get cm of rain. This also needs to be physically monitored to detect when and where offences occur.
As it stands the EA is not fit for purpose.
Comment by joanna Tarasiewicz posted on
That is just a nonsense and we all know that, including all directors, CEOs and other wealthy people from EA. There is already enough evidence gathered which showed that river is intentionally polluted with nothing to do heavy rainfall, but the evidence is being ignored.
It's just enough! How dare you?!
Thames Water should fix the problem and the EA should stop supporting dirty business!
Comment by Anne Clements posted on
No privatised company should be paying a dividend to shareholders or bonuses to employees and CEOs until the sewerage system in this country is fit for purpose, i.e. it should be good enough to cater, not only for the population and weather we currently have, but for the increase in population and the weather we are likely to experience in the future. At the rate quoted there will never be a situation where the companies catch up to where they should be, let alone be future proofed.
If this scenario is unpalatable to those who are currently making money out of what should be a public service, then the whole industry should be taken back into public ownership.
Comment by Jane Brylewski posted on
I don’t think it is helpful to blame Victorian drains which were not designed to deal with the increased population today. The job of the water companies is to keep the system up to date.
If rainwater can flood the system this is most likely because of years of neglect and a failure to have modernised the system adequately.
Many new homes have been built where I live, but I have not seen new sewage plants being built at the same rate to deal with the extra waste. Much of the equipment at sewage plants is old, does break down on occasions and is difficult to maintain. Would an annual MOT, like a car, be helpful? Should necessary improvements be compulsory and inspected.
The water companies are making profits and paying shareholders which seems wrong when the local environment and public health are at risk.
There are people in the Environment agency who are keen to do a good job, but at present the regulation of the water companies appears to be lacking in effectiveness.
Local groups of volunteers are keen to help improve the situation, we all need to work coherently to get any improvement.
Comment by Jewel K posted on
And what investment are you planning for new or bigger sewage facilities?
Comment by Angela Hughes posted on
That is just a nonsense and we all know that, including all directors, CEOs and other wealthy people from EA. There is already enough evidence gathered which showed that river is intentionally polluted with nothing to do heavy rainfall, but the evidence is being ignored.
Thames Water should fix the problem and the EA should stop supporting dirty business!
Comment by Graeme Phillips posted on
Your job, your mandate, your funding, your existence, your responsibility, is to PROTECT our environment...the clue is in your name! You are not there to be the excuse monkey for a water industry that skims off vast profits, whilst failing to invest in these “Victorian” systems, and is getting away with systematically destroying that environment you are charged with protecting. All we ask is the you DO YOUR JOB! Grow some balls, and hold these water companies to proper account.
Comment by Reg Bishop. posted on
I was born and grew up in Burford and the river Windrush is now a shadow of its former self. The water quality is getting worse and I see no attempt being made to address the problem? There are new housing developments but no expansion of sewerage management infrastructure to handle the extra load. How long can this go on? When will the E.A. demand some positive action? The river I learned to swim in is now toxic!
Comment by Neil posted on
I feel it is a great shame you use the fact the network was built by the Victorians as justification for it failing today. I don't remember reading about the Victorian gas or electricity grids yet they seem to have been installed, maintained and upgraded and isn't the justification of the super sewer that the victorian infrastructure is no longer fit for purpose?
You also mention there aren't yet any river's designated as bathing waters, but not whether you support or have targets for river sections to gain this status - do you....or shall we blame the Victorians again?
Comment by Sophie Bainbridge posted on
"Managing rivers for bathing presents new challenges in controlling sources of pollution and minimising health risks to create waters suitable for swimming"
So the rivers are too polluted to swim in !
this is totally shocking, they are a vital part of the eco system and all the animals birds and insects who rely on them for their water, if any farmer was doing this it would be a national scandal , DEFRA have controls to ensure that this doesn't happen . What sanctions are there for the water companies ?? self regulation ....must be a better solution
This is totally outrageous
Comment by James Bainbr8dge posted on
The Environment Agency has completely failed in its duties with regard to the pollution of our rivers. When will it wake up and take action against the water companies polluting the River Windrush and the intensive chicken / egg farming polluting the River Wye to name but two examples which I know well. DEFRA and our Government as a whole should press the Environment Agency on this.
Comment by James Bainbridge posted on
The Environment Agency has completely failed in its duties with regard to the pollution of our rivers. When will it wake up and take action against the water companies polluting the River Windrush and the intensive chicken / egg farming polluting the River Wye to name but two examples which I know well. DEFRA and our Government as a whole should press the Environment Agency on this.
Comment by Izzy Bainbridge posted on
What about all the livestock whose main source of water is the river?
I am having to carry buckets of clean and fresh water everyday into my field for my horses so that they have fresh and clean water to drink as they won’t drink the river water! As any horse owner knows horses only drink clean fresh water.
There is a reason for the saying - never drink the water your dog drinks but drink the water your horse drinks!
Comment by Deirdre Kincaid posted on
Don't 'explain' it. Bloody well fix it!
Comment by Simon H posted on
Why would an agency which is supposed to protect our rivers allow blatant pollution incidents to go with little or no punishment. Could it be that there is some corruption involved? There can be no other logical explanation.
Comment by Andrew Banbury posted on
What about future planning for the amount of new builds in rural areas . It takes very little time to get planning permission for new estates but it seems no new capacity for the waste waiter produced hence the increased damage to rivers and streams with terrible damage to the already struggling environment
Comment by Andrew Banbury posted on
What about future planning for the amount of new builds in rural areas . It takes very little time to get planning permission for new estates but it seems no new capacity for the waste waiter produced hence the increased damage to rivers and streams with terrible damage to the already struggling environment and no I haven't commented on this subject before so tell your reply system that !!!
Comment by Jane posted on
I also don’t understand why profit made from water companies is not reinvested in making the system more efficient. Given the amount of rain we have all rivers should be clean enough to swim in and for wildlife to thrive.
Comment by Serena Martin posted on
Capacity needs drastc improvement. Of late the use of CSO's has increased as house building has grown. Surely it is not beyond common sense that capacity needs expanding, along with much needed improvements. Wildlife is suffering, with endangered species being particularly hard hit.
Comment by Thorpy posted on
Very valid point +1
Comment by Paul arnold posted on
We have a local brook that children and dogs plan in unaware that raw sewage is dumped in it when it rains. Sanitary products can be seen in the bank side if you know what to look for. Severn trents responce is that we can do it we have a permit, go away. EAs responce is Severn trent have a licence, go away.
The brook is ultra clean before sewage is dumped in three locations. If you then take the trouble to walk the brook to where all the solids settle you find a horrendous environmental mess of sanitary waste, look the other way you wont see it or have to do anything about it ! In this day and age we should be more responsible fo the environment and leave it better than we found it . Should be as a minimum putting in a screen to prevent the solids entering the water course but the water companies just pass on the blame rather than providing a solution.
Water companies and the environmental agency shame on you!
I will take you to the site at any time to see if you would like to use your enforcement powers
Comment by Geoff Tombs posted on
Paul, if it as bad as you say call the EA incident line on 0800 807060 and report the incident. You should get an incident ref number and the EA should follow up and investigate. Evidence of sewage fungus or fish mortalities usually gets them motivated. Keep up the pressure.
Comment by Mrs. Lucy Simpson posted on
To the Environment Agency - Stop lying to us. It is absolutely disgusting that this has been allowed to happen over many, many years. I first noticed how polluted the River Windrush was 3 years ago and at that time was so upset. It was fortuitious that WASP Windrush Against Sewage Pollution came to my attention. Now the public have a voice and at last pressure can be put on local politicians and the Agencies responsible for this.
Comment by Richard Martin posted on
One of England's glories is the clean, drinkable water that flows from our taps... thank you, water companies.
And thank you, also, for taking pollution seriously, and helping to improve river quality. At a time when air quality worsens and litter abounds, it is good to know some things are getting better.
Comment by Peter Miles posted on
Please read.
https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/21097/20/21097%20YEARWOOD_The_Privatised_Water_Industry_in_the_UK_2018.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/14/green-investment-bank-sell-off-mps-macquarie
Comment by Nigel Carter posted on
And I guess that all those above railing against the water companies:
a) know exactly how much rain will fall in the UK next year and therefore what capacity is required;
b) will actively support the building of additional sewage treatment works in their own neighbourhood; and,
c) will never flush wet wipes/sanitary products/disposable nappies/cooking oils etc.
In the meantime, the Water Companies in collaboration with the EA will quietly get on with the job of delivering high quality drinking water and removing our ever-increasing amount of waste.
Comment by Thorpy posted on
a) easily done including adjustments for climate change of 40%, foul water flows to relevant british stand calculation method
b) more modern works are indistinguishable from industrial buildings, and expansion of capacity of existing works can be done, without extra area, with lower noise, and lower odour
c)that will take a generation's worth of education, my kids not to do that already
In the meantime . . "quitely" the only thing being done quietly is the insidious poisoning of our rivers and oceans, with microplastics, phthalates, and other endocrine disruptors. Sardines currently contain 0.03% plastic by wait.
Comment by Thorpy posted on
35% of all recorded microplastics in the ocean are synthetic textile fibres. How do these get in to the ocean? Via poor sewage treatment.
These microplastics, and the endocrine disrupters they contain bioaccumulate up the marine food chain, causing deformities, cancers, and infertility in higher predators.
These fibres are in the fish we eat, the fish we feed our kids. Oysters and Muscles are now riddled with plastic.
I challenge you to do better,
Comment by Kernow posted on
I am amazed that a DEFRA press and media officer would write such a complacent and factually dubious item. It reinforces the belief that the EA and the water companies are too close to each other, and only too willing to excuse or justify their joint lack of action on this growing problem. The system is not working correctly. It is overloaded, and increasingly unable to deal with the vast increases in surface water and sewage volumes that have been placed in to it over many years. Regular and increasing overflow is a sign of system failure, not success. The Victorians recognised their sewage disposal problems and did something about it. We new Elizabethans are apparently just meant to tolerate constant and repeated dumping of raw sewage, with mimimal action to improve the situation.
A bit more humility, and some regret, would not have gone amiss. Every one of these outflows should carry a big "Danger - raw sewage" warning sign at the point where it enters the river.Perhaps then public awareness would increase and government and the water companies would have to act. In the meanwhile, I watch with dismay as unaware canoeists on the River Goyt regularly paddle in this disgusting gloop.
Comment by Rufus Dufus posted on
What a pathetic unrepentant weasel worded irresponsible article. CSOs are badly outdated and the main cause of river pollution and riverine habitat destruction in the UK. The EA should have the guts and integrity to admit their failings, that they are nit replace CSOs on their own watch when they should be working flat out to do this.
Comment by Keith Meadmore posted on
The 2020 data is just beginning to be released by Southern Water. It confirms what many of us likely suspected. Year-on-year the amount of Environment Agency consented and authorised 'Spill' releases of untreated influent in 2020 increased by 60.3%. A burst, a blockage or failure of equipment is classified as unauthorised and forms the basis of EA's annual performance assessment of wastewater companies and which takes a whole year to report. Heavy rainfall caused spills however are apparently 'anticipated' and therefore is permitted (via the CSO) to be released so it doesn't back up the system, notwithstanding that even diluted it still nonetheless contains 30-40% of untreated influent by volume.
The root of the problem is: Dept of Housing, Communities & Local Government keep banging on about build, build build with an NPPF dictating a presumption in favour of sustainable development, yet the Dept of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is conversely banging on about protect, protect protect. Might I therefore suggest they are locked in the same room and not released until and unless we see more acceptable evidence of some joined up thinking and, the former, holds back until the latter has sorted itself out and also the wastewater treatment companies, who we all know has not invested properly in the infrastructure! They, Sec of States, local MPs, local District and County Councils have each been given a copy of my 2 investigation reports totalling 20 pages in all and which contains bucket loads of substantiated data (issued Dec2020) clearly proving they are indeed a bunch of plonkers.
Comment by BrandsthatcreatelitteronInstagram posted on
I have been finding hundreds of wipes and pantyliners in my local brook, which I am currently cleaning up. I have just learned about CSOs and now understand that humans are polluting the river, with the full agreement of the EA and water companies. You are criminals. Forget people, what about the lives of the fish.
Comment by Richard Brook posted on
You’ve had just over a 120 years to improve upon a ‘Victorian system’, but no doubt in another 120 years you’ll still be blaming it on ‘The Victorians’. The telephone network was originally a Victorian System and that seems to have been improved upon multiple times over the same period. It’s a good thing your department wasn’t in charge of that otherwise by your logic we’d all still be using telegraph machines.
Comment by Rich posted on
We live next to a main sewer that overspills into the road during persistent light or heavy rain. Anglia water have refused to do anything about it despit this being a 20+ year issue. Its possible that because it does not discharge into a water way its seen as acceptable?
Comment by eileenroffe posted on
Hi Rich, this would be a matter for your local Environmental Health Department at the council to look into. The environment Agency would only be involved in cases where leaking drains cause watercourse pollution. Yours - Joz
Comment by Robert Latimer posted on
20 years ago I along with other members of the public took part in a Public Inquiry. We had found that both the newly built storm system and sewerage treatment works had been issued with permits by the Environment Agency that were not fit for purpose.
The outcome of the Inquiry was that the Secretary of State accepted the Inspectors recommendations and issued permits with conditions.
20 years down the line in 2019 the storm system discharged 760,000 tonnes of untreated sewage. We were told by the EA that in 2019/2020 the treatment works overflowed 27 times amounting to 15 hours and 52 minutes. A member of the public recently challenged the EA over these discharge figures, the EA totally disagreed until now 3 months later they have had to admit the true number of discharges was a staggering 178 amounting to 646 hours, yes 646 - 4000% increase. Luckily I kept hold of the report from the Public Inquiry which estimated the spill rate from the CSO should be around 5,000 tonnes an hour using this calculation means that over 3 millions tonnes of untreated sewage by-passed treatment, little wonder the EA have never enforced the permit conditions. Third rate sewage system regulated by a fifth rate regulator. This can be seen when you look at the way the EA measure the flows from a CSO spill numbers and hours without the volume as I have shown means nothing. - Bob Latimer
Comment by Turner posted on
I am appalled that our local beach was red flagged due to drain and sewage allowed to flow into the sea yesterday. The drainage system is not fit for purpose and yet more and more houses are being built in the area when the system in place cannot cope already. Surely this is a sufficient reason to refuse any further planning applications until the system can cope.
Comment by Rosamund Robinson posted on
There appears to be no method of discovering whether those wastewater treatment plants that discharge treated wastewater to the strata, also have a combined sewer overflow system to discharge to a river. I am searching for data to explain why the water samples collected from a river designated as both an SSSI and an SAC in 2019 contain traces of pharmaceuticals. I understood that government departments had a duty to produce transparent records. Please advise how I can obtain this data. Thank you.
Comment by eileenroffe posted on
Please email us for the information at: enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk - include as much information as possible and a daytime telephone number - Eileen
Comment by Elizabeth knowles posted on
Why oh why if “ wipes” are such a significant cause of water pollution do we not have a big campaign to discontinue their use?
They are a very recent development - my son is 44 and they weren’t around when he was little.
Why don’t we have a huge publicity campaign - door to door - to make sure people also don’t pour oils and fats and sanitary products down the toilets.
I live in London - we never hear anything to educate us about this.
I’m sure most people where I live aren’t even aware you shouldn’t do this.
Spend some time and money on proper education about it as well as improving the infrastructure.
Comment by Bill Holter posted on
Rain water needs to flow into rivers not the sewage system. Investment needs to be focused on updating our old infrastructure to ensure rain water is kept totally separate. No raw sewage should ever be allowed to be discharged into our rivers and coastal waters.
Comment by Fed up person posted on
I’m not a mushroom, and after reading these comments none of us are, for heavens sake with a growing population in the uk and a desperate need for power,And according to you poo makes power, surely the more power you make the more more money you make.
Comment by MarkJ posted on
Please promote legislation for a couple of cubic meters of soakaway at every new property built. Likewise soakaways proportional to roof area on new industrial properties.
This would separate sewage and relatively clean rainwater, reduce combined sewage overflows, improve river health and coastal bathing and help recharge our dwindling aquifers.
Surely this would have trivial unit cost implications for new properties.
Comment by Farhad Tasneem posted on
Which strategy/principle is followed for the preferable location of a CSO?
Comment by Mike Preston posted on
Stop water companies paying dividends now. Use the profits to fix their infrastructure.
EA should have CCTV and automatic measurement on all outfalls. Every CSO is not being logged or reported and we all know it.
No more excuses. The environment belongs to the people of this country and the EA appears to not represent the people of this country.
Comment by Susannah Clemence posted on
What fraction of the volume of wastewater going through sewage treatment works, is run-off? (As opposed to grey water or from toilets)
Comment by John Wilson posted on
Before reading this I didn't know that drainage from your roof was routinely sent down the same pipes as sewage. I've just looked it up on building regulations and it is one of 3 approved methods. I live in a Victorian house and the sewage goes through a completely separate system to the other drainage.
Surely, rather than concentrating on dealing with this vast amount of unnecessary water at the sewage works, it would be better to deal with it by not letting it enter the works at all. Even on new builds the regulations allow ordinary rain water to mix with the sewage - just crazy.