An investigation has found that hundreds of discharge pipes across the UK are potentially illegally dumping raw sewage into the country's waterways.
There are more than 870 pipes which could be operating without permits, of which more than 200 are confirmed to be in use by water companies, according to findings from Channel 4's Dispatches programme. Permits are almost always required for firms to spill untreated sewage into rivers and seas when rainfall is high to prevent sewers from becoming overloaded and backing up into homes.
The investigation found that Northumbrian Water has 61 pipes without permits, all of which are being used. The company told PA News Agency these outfalls operate, and their performance is reported to the Environment Agency in "exactly the same way as any other."
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This follows the news that a total of 540 sewage dumps were made in central Newcastle's waterways in 2021 according to Environment Agency data, with the River Tyne heavily affected by these discharges. This led to Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah slamming the Government for "allowing water companies to pump sewage into the North East's waters."
Northumbrian Water told the Chronicle: "We take our commitments to the environment extremely seriously and have had an industry leading record on pollution in recent times, as well as the highest possible rating of 4stars in the Environment Agency's Environmental Performance Assessment. We share the passion of our customers and communities to make sure we can all enjoy a healthy natural environment and we work hard to protect and enhance coasts, rivers and watercourses in all areas of our operation.
"These outfalls operate, and their performance is reported to the Environment Agency, in exactly the same way as any of the other 1250 outfalls on our network. They are the result of the handover of the huge network from local authorities and other owners and in some cases very little information was provided to match permits to locations.
"A huge process has been carried out to manually find, inspect and match all storm overflows to relevant permits. During this process, we identified a small number of overflows where work was needed to ensure appropriate, modern permits were in place, and this process is ongoing and being carried out proactively with the Environment Agency."
Dispatches used Environmental Information Regulation requests to also find out that Welsh Water has 184 sewage discharge pipes without permits, all of which are said to be in use; while Severn Trent has 420 pipes without permits according to the investigation, with the company failing to specify how many were in operation.
Welsh Water told the PA news agency it would be “fundamentally incorrect and simply untrue” to say it was “deliberately operating these assets illegally” and said that unpermitted Combined Storm Overflows (CSOs) were pinpointed following a review which identified previously unknown assets before the water industry was privatised. It is working to secure the appropriate permits "as quickly as possible" and noted: "If these CSOs were prevented from operating during the permitting process, it would result in homes, schools and businesses flooding during heavy rain."
Severn Trent claimed that Dispatches' interpretation of the data was "not accurate" and said that permits can be "at varying stages of an administration process.
Meanwhile, a whistleblower told the investigation that water companies are left to investigate their own incidents due to the slashing of Environment Agency funds. Helen Nightingale, who recently retired from the agency after 30 years, said: "The funding’s been cut massively so we have fewer officers to go out and do the work.
"We are only supposed to attend the very serious or quite serious incidents. The lower impact incidents, environment officers are told not to attend them.
"We aren’t as aggressive. We don’t enforce to the same extent against water companies. Now water companies investigate their own incidents and tell us what category it is."
Earlier this week, Labour claimed that Liz Truss presided over "efficiency savings" during her time as environment secretary, significantly slashing funding for the Environment Agency and resulted in "doubled sewage discharge." The party's analysis of official figures showed that between 2016 - when the Tory leadership frontrunner was in charge of Defra - and 2021, raw sewage discharge more than doubled, from 14.7% overflow to 29.3%.
This coincided with Truss cutting £80m of sewage monitors as part of a £235m Tory axe to the Environment Agency's budget. As environment secretary, she justified the cuts saying "there are ways we can make savings as a department," and cited the better use of technology and inter-agency working.
On Saturday, George Eustice, who now has the environment brief, defended the Government's new plan to crack down on damaging sewage spills after critics called the proposals a "cruel joke." He claimed to be the first secretary of state to "really grip" the issue, after an announcement that water companies will be expected to invest £56 billion in 25 years to combat the impact of storm overflows on England's seas and rivers.
The proposals drew criticism from conservation campaigners, who claimed the plan aimed merely to "claw its way back" to what should have already been "business as usual." Jim McMahon, Labour's shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, said the Tories have allowed the country to be treated "as an open sewer."
Dispatches said it was told by Northumbrian Water, Welsh Water and Severn Trent that the companies are proactively working with the Environment Agency to ensure the correct permits are in place for all storm overflows. The Environment Agency told the programme: "Water companies have rightly been condemned for allowing far too many sewage spills and we are holding the industry to account on an unprecedented scale."
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told the PA News Agency: "We are the first government to take action to tackle sewage overflows. We have been clear that water companies’ reliance on overflows is unacceptable and they must significantly reduce how much sewage they discharge as a priority.
"This is on top of ambitious action we have already taken, including setting targets to improve water quality which will act as a powerful tool to deliver cleaner water, pushing all water companies to go further and faster to fix overflows."
How do you think the problem of raw sewage being dumped into rivers and seas should be tackled? Let us know!
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