The Workplace for Environmental Safety (OEP) has issued separate resolution notices to Defra, the EA, and Ofwat for failures to adjust to environmental legislation in respect of untreated sewage discharges, warning that court docket motion might observe if corrective steps are usually not taken inside two months.
Introduced on 16 December, the motion concludes an investigation into the regulation of community mixed sewer overflows (CSOs) in England, which started in June 2022.
Helen Venn, the OEP’s Chief Regulatory Officer, stated: “The core subject recognized in our investigation is the circumstances wherein the regulatory system permits untreated sewage discharges to happen. We interpret the legislation to imply that they need to usually be permitted solely in distinctive circumstances, comparable to throughout unusually heavy rainfall. That is until an evaluation of the CSO concludes that the prices to handle the difficulty can be disproportionate to the advantages gained. Whereas the general public authorities are actually taking steps to make sure their approaches are aligned and reflective of the legislation, we now have discovered that this has not all the time been the case. The choice notices formally make clear what we now have concluded is required.
“We’ll resolve subsequent steps when we now have thought-about the responses to those resolution notices. That would embrace court docket motion.”
Charity group The Rivers Belief responded to the announcement:
“The truth that three public our bodies tasked with regulating our water business and its impression on the setting have failed to take action successfully over such a time period validates the tireless work of environmental and group teams who’ve lengthy referred to as out water corporations’ over-reliance on CSOs. It’s crucial that the Setting Company, Defra, and Ofwat now reply to the OEP’s findings totally and in good religion.
“We welcome the optimistic steps that are actually being taken to cut back the blight of sewage air pollution on our waterways, however there’s room for a lot extra ambition to rework how we handle water to revive our rivers to good well being. We’ll wait to see whether or not water corporations’ five-year funding plans – to be introduced later this week – go far sufficient to fulfill the OEP’s necessities.”
