British sewage overflows stink up relations throughout English Channel

EU lawmakers have a brand new, post-Brexit cause to be aggravated with the UK: British sewage overflows seeping into the English Channel and the North Sea.

Heavy rainfall after weeks of dry climate overwhelmed components of Britain’s sewage system final week, inflicting untreated wastewater to be discharged into rivers and seas. The downside is a long-running challenge in Britain, the place regulators are investigating potential allow violations by six main water corporations and environmental teams allege the corporations have did not make wanted repairs.

This is especially an issue for the U.Okay., the place folks have been warned to steer clear of dozens of seashores final week, elevating considerations about public well being and the injury to wildlife. The activist group Surfers Against Sewage reported 654 alerts of sewer overflows spilling sewage into bathing waters this summer time from 171 areas in England and Wales.

But three French members of the European Parliament despatched a letter to the European Commission on Wednesday warning that the sewage may additionally threaten bathing waters, fishing grounds and biodiversity within the European Union.

“The English Channel and the North Sea are not dumping grounds,” mentioned Stephanie Yon-Courtin, a member of the European Parliament’s fishing committee and an area lawmaker in Normandy.

“We can’t tolerate that the environment, the economic activity of our fishers and the health of our citizens is put into grave danger by repeated negligence of the United Kingdom in the management of its sewage water,” she mentioned.

The lawmakers requested the Commission “to use all the political and legal means in its possession” to discover a answer, accusing the U.Okay. of violating its post-Brexit commerce cope with the EU. They mentioned whereas the U.Okay. is not held to EU environmental requirements, it’s nonetheless a signatory to the U.N. conference on maritime rights and obligated to guard shared seawater.

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The European Commission mentioned it had not contacted London to this point concerning the complaints. “We will take further the matter as appropriate,” Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant mentioned Thursday.

Britain’s Conservative authorities has rejected the criticism, saying it has strengthened water high quality laws since Brexit.

“Unhelpful and ill-informed comments like this shouldn’t distract from the work we are doing to further protect our rivers and sea, said Steve Double, the U.K. water minister. “We have already made it law for water companies to reduce the frequency and volume of sewage discharges, and our upcoming Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure program in water company history.”

But final week the opposition Liberal Democrats launched a report alleging that wastewater discharges weren’t being correctly recorded as a result of lots of the required monitoring gadgets both weren’t working correctly or hadn’t been put in but.

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While U.Okay. water corporations are barred from dumping untreated wastewater in regular circumstances, they’re allowed to make such releases when heavy rains threaten to overwhelm sewage therapy vegetation. Environmental teams allege some corporations exploit this exception to economize and keep away from upgrading their programs.

During the Brexit breakup negotiations, the EU repeatedly expressed fears that the UK would ditch the bloc’s stringent environmental requirements and yield to enterprise pressures for a extra deregulated system that would put their shared atmosphere at risk.

The commerce settlement that took impact in 2021 after Britain left the EU accommodates no particular provision on learn how to cope with stormwater overflows.

Water UK, which represents water and wastewater corporations, mentioned its members have been investing 3 billion kilos to deal with overflows as a part of a nationwide program to enhance the atmosphere between 2020 and 2025. It acknowledged “an urgent need for action to tackle the harm caused to the environment by spills from storm overflows and wastewater treatment works.”

“Water companies can’t do this alone, which is why we’re also calling for government, regulators, water companies, agriculture and other sectors to come together as soon as possible to deliver a comprehensive national plan,” the water trade group mentioned.

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