In response to a formal complaint by WildFish, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has decided that Ofwat, the Environment Agency (EA) and Defra have all failed to implement the law on sewage treatment, allowing water companies to pollute English rivers unlawfully for years.
Today’s ruling vindicates everything that we have said over the last fifteen years. The government and its regulators – the Environment Agency and Ofwat – have simply not been complying with the law. They have failed to implement the obligations of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Regulations 1994, which sets down standards for sewage treatment.
WildFish made history in 2021 when its formal complaint to the OEP led to the announcement of its first-ever investigation into the regulation of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) by the EA, Ofwat and DEFRA (learn more). Two years on, in June 2023, the OEP indicated that “there may have been failures to comply with environmental law by all three of the public authorities” (read more).
The OEP has achieved a great deal here. They have clarified that much of the sewage pollution plaguing English rivers must now finally be brought to an end under pre-existing laws.
It is now clear that Ofwat has a duty directly to enforce the 1994 law against water companies, which it has failed to do over decades. The Environment Agency also has to secure compliance with the 1994 law by tightening the terms of the permits it issues to water companies under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016.
The Environment Agency must do that at once, as most permits issued to water companies do not currently restrict raw sewage overflow discharges to exceptional weather. Where works can be carried out, which would not require excessive costs, the Environment Agency is under a clear legal duty to amend permits, in effect to require those works to be carried out.
We will be watching extremely closely what the Government, the Environment Agency and Ofwat now collectively say and do to bring the current illegality to a rapid end.
Guy Linley-Adams continued: “The OEP has delivered a broadside. However – alongside ensuring that his Department and the two regulators now implement and comply with the existing law (as the OEP has indicated they must) – the Secretary of State has a golden opportunity to become the one who actually tackles the sewage crisis head-on.
It will take courage and skill to grab this issue by the horns and solve it. We wrote to Steve Reed last summer to indicate what we consider he can do right now, with the legal powers he already has at his disposal, to get the process moving much more rapidly towards a solution.
We will be watching and we trust, so will the OEP.”
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This ruling’s the best Christmas present our rivers and their wild fish could have. Thanks to all at WildFish and the OEP for making it happen. DEFRA, EA, OFWAT: know that we will be watching you. So do your job and enforce the law at last.
Thanks, Mark!
To Nick Measham
I support your action to bring a Judicial review of Buckinghamshire council decision to give permission to build houses in Buckingham area where the sewage system cannot cope with the existing housing requirement. It is obvious that new houses waiting to be connected to the sewage system now will be connected ( this is the cheapest option for the water companies ) and they will pay the fines for river pollution. It is important to stop permission for house building until adequate sewage treatment is provided in the relevant area.
Thank you for the hard work you have put in holding the water companies OFWAT and Environment Agency to account. It is vital to restore our rivers and seas to high standards
Thank you!
What a huge step forward. Congratulations to you all.
Thank you for your support.