In a recent announcement by the government, it has been declared that all of England’s storm overflows are now electronically monitored. This makes it simpler & easier to hold water companies accountable. The monitors, known as EDMs, have the ability to report quickly when water companies release sewage into rivers & seas. In the previous decade, the number of electronically monitored storm overflows continuously increased.
Sewage is only supposed to be discharged after severe rainfall. However, last year there were 1.75 million hours of discharges. England has approximately 15,000 storm overflows, and the government set its nine water companies a target of monitoring all of them by the end of 2023. Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said, “The completion of storm overflow monitoring is a significant step forward in better protecting our precious waterways, as well as the communities and wildlife that depend on them.”
Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company, recalculated how many outflows were part of its network. Last year, it reported that only 61% of its 777 overflows were being monitored. This year, after questions from the BBC about how it achieved 100%, Thames Water explained that as well as adding new monitors, it also discovered that 158 of the overflows it reported in 2022 were not connected to the sewage network anymore or were duplicates of other outfall permits. Thames Water said it now has only 619 outflows, which the Environment Agency (EA), the regulator, is content with after receiving the EDM data and investigating illegal spills.
The EA is now conducting a “major criminal investigation” into whether sewage treatment plants are releasing before they reach full capacity. River Action UK’s James Wallace believes that there is still much to be done to ensure that water companies are held accountable over sewage spills. “Until the government properly resources the regulators with the required staff and funding, these assertions of improvements are a meaningless slap in the face to those seeing the demise of their precious rivers and water security,” he said
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More