Category Archives: Environment Agency

30 water treatment works released 11bn litres of raw sewage in a year, study suggests

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Exclusive: Researchers analysed works run by nine water and sewerage companies in England and Wales

Eleven billion litres of raw sewage were discharged from a sample of 30 water company treatment works in one year, new research suggests.

The study aimed to reveal the volume of discharged effluent released from storm overflows by water firms. Companies are not forced to reveal the volume of raw sewage released during discharges. They are only required by regulators to provide data on the number of discharges and the length of time they lasted.

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Starmer accuses government of ‘turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer’

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Lib Dems call for Thérèse Coffey to resign after raw discharges sent into English rivers 825 times a day last year

Keir Starmer has accused the government of “turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer”, as data showed raw discharges were sent into English rivers 825 times a day last year.

Private water companies have been consistently accused of failing to take action, and the Environment Agency admitted there were more than 300,000 spillages into rivers and coastal areas in 2022, lasting for more than 1.75m hours.

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Whitehall procurement cards serve a purpose but oversight is patchy

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Labour analysis shows use of GPCs has risen under Tory government despite David Cameron decrying ‘hideous’ spending levels in 2010

Nestled inside a shaded courtyard, Plataran in south Jakarta offers diners the promise of authentic Indonesian food “with the atmosphere of Javanese royalty”. Five miles to the north, Kaum gives guests a taste of tribal Indonesian cooking with modern inflections.

Together, these are two of the city’s finest restaurants, and they are where Liz Truss and her team decamped, first for lunch and then for dinner, during a whistle-stop trip to the Indonesian capital in 2021. The two meals cost the taxpayer £1,443 – all paid for conveniently by handing over one of the thousands of government procurement cards (GPCs) that officials can use to pay for anything under £20,000.

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England’s coast faces ‘multiple threats’ of dredging, sewage and pollution

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Environment Agency paints bleak picture of coastal regions with eco-systems and people coming under increased pressure

Dredging is likely to increase around the English coast, while pollution and sewage are piling pressure on coastal eco-systems, and an increasing number of people are at risk of coastal flooding, the Environment Agency has warned.

Three quarters of shellfish waters around England failed to meet “aspirational” standards for environmental protection in 2021, the report by the agency’s chief scientist’s group found.

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Target date for cleaning up waterways in England is moved back by 36 years

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Environment Agency under fire for extending schedule for tackling pollution in rivers, lakes and coastal waters to 2063

Targets to clean up the majority of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters suffering from a cocktail of agricultural and sewage pollution have been pushed back from 2027 to 2063.

Not one English waterway, including rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters is in good ecological and chemical health at present, with pollution from water treatment plants and agriculture the key sources of the damage. The Environment Agency said on Thursday £5.3bn was being invested for the next five years to stop the further deterioration of waterways.

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‘We just want the truth’: British coastal towns fight for answers over mystery sealife deaths

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Question mark over freeport in Tees Valley after ecological disaster puts communities in the north east of England at loggerheads with the government

Stan Rennie has indelicate hands that aren’t good for typing. He’s not the kind of person who cares much for technology at all.

But over the last year, the fisherman has found himself spending less time outdoors and more time glued to his computer, tapping out stern emails to politicians and researching niche areas of environmental law. “It’s taken over his life,” his daughter Sarah, 36, says.

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All of south-west of England in drought, says Environment Agency

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Announcement means 11 of agency’s 14 areas in England now in drought status after record dry spell

All of south-west England is in drought after some of the driest conditions in nearly 90 years, the Environment Agency has said.

The Wessex area – which includes Bristol, Somerset, Dorset, south Gloucestershire and parts of Wiltshire – has been declared in drought status.

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Environment Agency pension fund criticised for owning stakes in UK water firms

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Campaigner Feargal Sharkey says profiteering from firms that dump raw sewage into rivers an ‘obscenity’

The Environment Agency’s pension fund owns stakes in a string of British water firms – despite the watchdog calling for industry bosses to be jailed over shocking pollution levels, the Guardian can reveal.

An analysis of the Environment Agency Pension Fund’s investments shows it holds shares or bonds worth £28m in six of the largest water companies.

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Exclusive: water firms discharged raw sewage into England’s rivers 200,000 times in 2019

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Untreated effluent flowed into waterways for more than 1.5m hours, data shows

Water companies in England discharged raw sewage into rivers on more than 200,000 occasions last year, according to data obtained by the Guardian.

The analysis reveals untreated human waste was released into streams and rivers for more than 1.5m hours in 2019.

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England and Wales brace for further heavy rain with flood warnings issued

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Northern England will face most severe weather conditions and up to 70mm of rain could fall at highest areas

Parts of England and Wales are bracing for further heavy rain with forecasters warning up to 70mm could fall in some areas.

Northern England is set to see the heaviest rain, with weather conditions so severe, Sunday’s Cycling World Championship route from Leeds to Harrogate was shortened from 284.5km to 261km. Riders were taking a shortcut from near Aysgarth to Leyburn to avoid dangerous roads.

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World ‘gravely’ unprepared for effects of climate crisis – report

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Trillions of dollars needed to avoid ‘climate apartheid’ but this is less than cost of inaction

The world’s readiness for the inevitable effects of the climate crisis is “gravely insufficient”, according to a report from global leaders.

This lack of preparedness will result in poverty, water shortages and levels of migration soaring, with an “irrefutable toll on human life”, the report warns.

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Suspected ‘pollution incident’ turns River Frome tributary blue

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Environment Agency analysing Somerset stream but says there are no reports of dead wildlife

A mysterious substance that has turned a tributary of a river in the West Country bright blue is being investigated by the Environment Agency.

Tests are being carried out on the River Frome in Somerset this weekend after the water turned a luminous colour. The Environment Agency said it was treating it as a suspected pollution incident but there were no reports of dead wildlife.

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Climate crisis: flooding threat ‘may force UK towns to be abandoned’

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Environment Agency calls for urgent action to protect country from river and coastal floods

Entire communities might need to be moved away from coasts and rivers as the UK takes urgent action to prepare for an average global temperature rise of 4C, the Environment Agency warned.

The agency said on Thursday that difficult decisions would have to be taken in the coming years to make sure the UK was resilient amid flooding that would not be held back by higher land defences.

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