DIRTY RIVERS AND WHO REALLY CARES - I DO AND SO DOES LEGAL JUSTICE

 Good morning! This newsletter is about the unsavoury subject of discharging sewage into rivers. 

 

It's been in the news a lot recently and we expect that when you've heard about it you've thought 'That sounds terrible. Somebody should be doing something about that'. That's what we thought too and so we got our legal team to dig into the question of who has the responsibility - is it Defra, is it Ofwat or is it the Environment Agency?

 

Did one of these bodies, funded by the taxpayer, leap forward and say 'Leave it to us - we'll fix it'? No. All three seemed to think that one of the others should be dealing with this issue. It was a bit like this;

 

 

 

 

We think Ofwat is unlawfully failing to discharge its responsibilities under the Urban Waste Water Treatment (England and Wales) Regulations 1994 (UWWT) and section 94 of the Water Industry Act 1991. We've written to them as the first stage in legal action on this matter - you can see our Pre-action Protocol letter and read more about this issue on our blog - click here.

 

We were expecting a response from Ofwat early next week but yesterday we heard from them that they need more time to explain themselves. We'll keep you updated on this matter.

 

Wild Justice said: It’s not so much Ofwat as Ofwhere? They are missing in action. Our rivers and their wildlife need Ofwat to get active.

 

Carol Day, solicitor at Leigh Day said: While the public are rightly frustrated with the Environment Agency for an apparent reluctance to prosecute water companies for breaches of permits, there’s an underlying question as to whether our Victorian sewage treatments plants are still fit for purpose. The responsibility for ascertaining the position on that – and for requiring action where they are not – lies with Ofwat, but it appears to be doing nothing to solve that underlying problem. Our clients hope that highlighting Ofwat’s duties in this regard will ensure the necessary steps are taken to upgrade our outdated sewage plants.

 

If you like what we are doing, please consider making a donation through PayPal, bank transfer or a cheque in the post - see details here. Our work is funded solely by donations. 

 

Thank you!

 

Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).