WildFish welcomes OEP statement on storm sewage pollution but will Cunliffe now undo that good work?

As the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) ends its work on the WildFish sewage complaint – concluding that a 1994 law to prevent sewage pollution was not implemented properly or lawfully, allowing water companies to pollute English rivers for years – Sir John Cunliffe’s Water Review, published two days ago, now proposes ‘reviewing’ that very same law on sewage pollution.

Following a referral by WildFish, the OEP decided last December that Ofwat, the Environment Agency and Defra had all failed to implement the law on sewage treatment, allowing water companies to pollute English rivers unlawfully for years, serving formal Decision Notices on all three bodies under section 36 of the Environment Act 2021. [1]

Speaking about the conclusions, Guy Linley-Adams, Solicitor for WildFish, said: “The OEP Decision backed up what WildFish had been saying for years – that the regulators and their Ministerial masters had failed over years to comply with and implement the existing law, the Urban Wastewater Treatment Regulations 1994, which set down standards for sewage treatment. The OEP has done a superb job here and should be congratulated”.

There have been recent signs that the two regulators, OFWAT and the Environment Agency, had finally ‘got the message’ on the 1994 law.

However, OFWAT is now to be abolished and the Agency stripped of its ‘watery’ functions, and Sir John has suggested that the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations 1994 should be “updated”, after a “review of the UWWTR 1994” to “look at how it can better align with the SODRP[2] in England”.

Guy Linley-Adams continued: “The OEP clarified that much of the storm sewage pollution that is plaguing English rivers would not be occurring had Government and regulators done their jobs properly. Storm sewage pollution should have been brought to an end under 30-year-old statutory and regulatory obligations. Given the failure to invest sufficiently in sewerage infrastructure over many years, whatever happens now, we do need to see sustained high levels of investment to make up for lost time.

However, by opening up the prospect of reviewing the 1994 Regulations, and by abolishing OFWAT and merging the water functions of the Agency into some as yet undefined new regulator, we fear Cunliffe may have inadvertently given government a way out of its existing legal obligations. We will be watching closely.”

Follow the link below to read the full statement from the Office of Environmental Protection.

List of references 

1. Back in 2021, WildFish made history when its formal complaint to the OEP led to the OEP’s announcement of its first-ever investigation – into the regulation of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) by the Environment Agency, Ofwat and Defra. Two years later, the OEP indicated in June 2023 that “there may have been failures to comply with environmental law by all three of the public authorities”.

2. Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan