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David Levy – News Update : Is the Water Industry muddying the waters for amendment of the Environment Bill – Aug 21

I am writing to keep you all up to date on the progress Marinet is trying to make in assisting the Duke of Wellington’s Amendments which are currently in the House of Lords and due for consideration at the Bill’s Report Stage in early September.

Therefore I want to inform you of a face to face meeting Stephen and I have had with Wessex Water’s Director of Wastewater Services, Matt Wheeldon.

This gentleman is an official water industry spokesperson with Government.   He sits on the current DEFRA Storm Overflows Taskforce committee advising the Government.   Therefore he is knowledgeable, and his primary responsibility is to inform Government on the direction the water industry is taking.

So you’ve guessed it, we had a difficult if not uphill struggle to get him to accept the points we made to him, and to then take them forward to the industry.

His primary point to us is that all the legislation he and the industry needs for change already exists, but he owned up to the fact that change using these laws has been going far too slowly and that the public’s awareness has far outstripped the position which the water companies are currently in.

We tried to demonstrate to him that the Duke of Wellington’s amendments will work to the industry’s advantage because, using these new management plans, the amendments will give the industry a direct line of communication with the public (which they currently do not have) about what they are trying to achieve and, importantly, the obstacles they face.

The Duke of Wellington’s amendments will legally require the industry, via these new management plans, to year on year improvements leading to the elimination of CSOsCSO The sewerage system generally carries surface water from rain falling on paved areas (roads, pavements, roofs, etc.) via a separate sewer from the sewer which carries foul water (sewage). Surface water sewers are generally low in contamination and are allowed to discharge direct to rivers and sea with no treatment, whereas foul sewers go to a sewage treatment works. When there is heavy or prolonged rainfall sewage treatment works may receive some of this rainwater and thus become overloaded. In these circumstances they need to overflow, discharging the overflow with little or no treatment. This overflow either goes direct to a river or the sea or, more commonly, into a surface water sewer which already connects with a river or the sea. This event, when a surface water sewer is compelled to accept poorly or untreated foul water, turns the surface water sewer into a combined sewer (surface and foul water) on account of the foul water sewer overflowing into it. When this happens the discharge from the surface water sewer is known as a ‘combined sewer overflow’..   At present, the Bill does not contain these legal obligations.   Alas, we found this was a place to where he, as the industry’s spokesperson, would not go.

The more likely version of this reality is that he could not deliver the water companies to this commitment; but, he would not say this.

For this reason I found that honesty and integrity are not an aspect that is required for his current posting.   Diplomacy, yes.

So in conclusion I have to report back, firstly, that our contribution to date has focused thinking within the industry and government on where we currently reside in terms of river quality and health issues.   But secondly, that we have failed to elicit support for our parliamentary work because the industry are saying to us: “Thank you for accelerating the issues and encouraging debate, but it is now firmly with us and change is happening”.

Whether that “change” will be fast or urgent enough I doubt, as the DEFRA Taskforce wants more data before committing financial resources.   This effectively means ‘kicking the can down the road’, potentially for another decade or more.

I believe the water industry has failed to truly engage with the concept of using and engaging public participation, thereby enabling the public to support them financially with the passion that the subject engenders.

As a result the water industry remains rooted in the last generation of communication and, even more significantly, is in serious danger of losing the opportunity that this Environment Bill offers them, indeed all of us, for real time change.

David Levy