Water companies have yet to complete a single improvement under the government’s scheme for tackling the worst sewage overflows, almost four years after it was launched to clean up rivers, an analysis of official records reveals.
The Environment Agency worked with the companies to develop the Storm Overflow Assessment Framework (SOAF), to tackle the highest-spilling overflows, which are responsible for the greatest damage to rivers.
The scheme was launched in June 2018, and the agency claimed the following month that it would help to satisfy rising “public expectations” that rivers should be protected from sewage spills.
The scheme identified more than 700 high-spilling overflows “to be investigated”, while 40 which discharge raw sewage up to 110 times a year were prioritised for “spill reduction”.
Windrush Against Sewage Pollution analysed data collected by the agency and found improvements had yet to be completed on any of the 40 overflows.
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The campaign group, which helped to expose widespread illegal sewage spills by water companies, said the lack of progress revealed the weakness of the agency’s regulation of the industry.
It said that the framework had allowed water companies to delay investment by establishing a bureaucratic and lengthy process of first assessing the impact of overflows and then considering whether the environmental benefits of reducing spills would outweigh the costs. Only then, Windrush state, might any improvement be approved.
Last month, Windrush sent a report on the failures of the framework to George Eustice, the environment secretary, urging him to intervene in order to stop the industry from profiting “from failed and illegally operating infrastructure”. It has yet to receive a reply.
The report concluded that the framework had been a “total and entirely predictable failure . . . ill conceived and highly influenced by an industry which relies heavily on the excessive use of sewage outfalls to prop up failing infrastructure and a lack of adequate investment”.
It added: “Even worse is the fact that the SOAF effectively protects the industry by placing failure into a ridiculously stifling and drawn out maze of processes which work together to protect the industry, not the environment.
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“The Environment Agency has been content to act as a spectator as this failure unfolded and shows no sign of admitting its failure.”
An agency spokesman said: “We recognise the harm that sewage pollution can cause to human health and the environment. We use a number of tools to reduce this pollution, including the SOAF.
“The SOAF was first used to inform the business planning for the current 2020 to 2025 period, and investigations into water quality around storm overflow outlets for this period are running to schedule. Spill reduction schemes are scheduled for delivery after the conclusion of investigations, due shortly.”
The agency subsequently admitted that improvements to most of the 40 overflows would not be completed for at least another three years.
It said that only three would be completed this year, with six next year, ten in 2024, 19 in 2025 and two in 2027.
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Water UK, which represents water companies, said: “Water companies are passionate about protecting and enhancing the health of our rivers, and have invested heavily to modernise the monitoring of storm overflows, and reduce the impact of spills.
“More than 90 per cent of overflows are now monitored, with full coverage by the end of 2023. This data allows water companies to target investment where it will have the greatest effect and will inform spill reduction plans due to be published later this year.”
