Water companies illegally dumping raw sewage through secret pipes

2 comments

1. Water companies have admitted illegally dumping raw sewage from a network of pipes that are only meant to be used in emergencies.

   There are 7,000 emergency overflows attached to pumping stations across England, which are currently largely unmonitored. The pipes are not included in annual figures on record sewage spills from 15,000 other outfalls known as storm overflows across the wider sewer network.

   The emergency overflows are only legally permitted to release sewage during “urgent circumstances” such as mechanical breakdowns, to avoid sewage backing up into homes. The regulator Ofwat believes that they discharge less than once a year on average, compared to about 20 times for storm overflows.

   However, the Environment Agency has been informed by the ten wastewater companies operating in England that many of the emergency pipes could be operating outside their permits.

2. They’re not secret pipes, that’s just clickbait.

   All overflows (should) have consents. Some are consented to operate on wet weather (Combined Sewer Overflows, CSOs) and all of these have event duration monitors.

   Some are consented to operate in emergencies (Emergency overflows, EOs) and don’t have to have event duration monitors, yet.

   A small number of overflows aren’t consented at all. (unconsented CSOs, uCSOs). These are typically small connections which got overlooked in the consenting process over the last 35 years.

   At least some water companies have programmes to check how often their EOs actually operate and get them reconsentes if necessary, and to identify uCSOs and get consents for them.

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