A UK government plan to cut millions of hours of raw sewage being discharged by water companies each year is facing a judicial review on the grounds that it is illegal.
Conservation charity WildFish is calling for the storm surge mitigation strategy published on Friday to be withdrawn immediately.
The plan is said to allow stormwater overflows to continue to discharge raw sewage for the next 28 years. In high priority areas, the strategy will allow discharges to cause adverse environmental impacts for the next 13 years.
“WildFish’s lawyers concluded that Defra’s [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] the much vaunted plan to reduce storm surge discharges is unlawful on many counts,” said Nick Meesham, the charity’s chief executive.
“The plan allows or otherwise encourages breaches of existing environmental laws by water companies, Ofwat and the Secretary of State himself to continue for many years to come, in some cases up to 2050.”
Meesham said the plan showed the government had no real appetite to deal decisively with the appalling sewage pollution of England’s rivers caused by water companies.
The government’s strategy was criticized by a number of organizations and members of the public when it went out for consultation as being too weak with targets set too far into the future.
The Rivers Trust said it was appalled the government had failed to take into account the thousands of responses to the draft consultation which called for much more ambitious targets.
Christine Colvin, Director of Advocacy and Engagement at the Rivers Trust, said: “Requiring this plan in the Environment Act has given the Government a great opportunity to right the wrongs of weak regulation and lead the way. It had to present an open goal for a new beginning to stop sewage pollution in my lifetime. Instead, they scored an own goal.”
She said the government had stopped engaging with the stormwater runoff mitigation taskforce, which had not received the results of the consultation, nor been invited to give further advice on how the plan could be strengthened.
Under the government’s plans, by 2035 water companies will have to improve all spillways discharging into or near any designated bathing water, and improve 75% of spillways discharging into high-priority natural sites. By 2050, this will apply to all waterways.
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WildFish commenced proceedings against the plan, issuing a pre-action letter requesting that the strategy be withdrawn.
The storm mitigation plan was published after a summer in which the discharge of untreated sewage by water utilities led to beach closures and bathing water quality warnings issued across the country. Last week, a sewage leak from Thames Water destroyed fish stocks along a three-mile stretch of the River Ray. Thames Water said a sewer pipe had burst near Swindon.
Beaches in Sussex were closed after untreated sewage was pumped into the sea, with the overflow captured on video.
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