Government accused of sewage discharge failure

The government and regulators breached the law by allowing water firms to discharge sewage, a watchdog has ruled.

- EMILY BEAMENT

The Office for Environmental Protection said the Environment Department (Defra), the Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat failed to comply with environmental law over regulating discharges from combined sewer overflows (CSO) into England’s rivers and seas.

These outlets from the sewerage and drainage network are only supposed to be used in exceptional circumstances such as periods of unusually heavy rain to prevent the system backing up and flooding people’s homes and businesses with sewage.

But an investigation by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) found that Defra and the regulators failed to provide guidance, permits and enforcement for the use of CSOs in line with the law.

The announcement comes amid widespread public anger over the degraded state of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters, which are beset with pollution from several sources including sewage, agricultural run-off and chemical pollutants.

Campaigners who lodged the original complaint with the watchdog said the ruling showed much of the pollution “plaguing English rivers” would not be occurring if the government and regulators had done their job.

Conservation charity WildFish said the public bodies had allowed water companies to pollute English rivers unlawfully for years and called for storm sewage pollution to be brought to an end.

Discharged sewage can harm wildlife and wider river ecosystems because chemicals entering the water – from pharmaceuticals to phosphates – are toxic or fuel the rapid growth of algae, which can choke out other forms of life by consuming all the oxygen.

It can also be a source of E coli, which can cause diarrhoea, stomach cramps and fever when ingested by swimmers.