Has Southern Water dumped its last load?
LUCY BROWN
We’ve burnt effigies, we’ve protested, filmed illegal dumping – yes pun intended – even sought legal advice against bill paying, yet Southern Water plough on pumping raw sewage into our waters.
This is not an issue to give up on – it’s simply too important. Nor should the newly appointed chair of Water UK, Dr Ruth Kelly, be anything to be excited about. Her mock shock at the condition of our waters (ranked the worst in Europe), the enormity of the fines absorbed easily and ineffectually by Southern Water, the continuing lies from the company and of course the main concern, the continuing dangers to the climate, marine life and human life, appear to be well known to all but Dr Kelly.
She claims it has taken years to collate the data. Surfers Against Sewage took on the most accurate and comprehensive study of our waters in one year – 2021. Yes, this shit show has been years in production, but the reviews from the public have never been so vocal and so recent. It’s thanks to the critics she’s been wheeled out in her current role at all.
As a layperson and swimmer I came across this information (Read it and Weep) last summer. Following an illness diagnosed by the GP as caused by sea swimming, I checked a tool called Beachbuoy – Southern Water’s ‘accurate,’ ‘live’ map of sewage spills. The beach was declared safe – even “excellent”. I then checked the Surfers Against Sewage equivalent graphic. It sported a bright red flag translating as ‘do not enter the water at any cost.’ I contacted Southern Water. An extremely tedious reply from them indicated that it was the Environment Agency who set the guidelines for judging water quality, and that data was only collected between May and September which then stands for the whole year (unlucky for you if you’re a winter swimmer, or a fish.)
When I pointed out it was in fact August I was told that “swimmers are expected to use their common sense”, a line they still use today. So they declare the beach safe, nay excellent, yet I had the lack of sense to swim. “Please note: Southern Water can’t make any safety recommendations for water users. Beachbuoy is simply a release reporting tool – users are advised to use their own discretion when entering the water.” Well, that’s cleared that up then.
Swimmers are asking for it
So when Dr Kelly promises “additional data will be added to The Hub [the shiny new name for Beachbuoy] to let people see the real world impact”, I fear that no one has told her that this live map already exists, and it lies.
I had a look yesterday at the Southern Water (SW) site. Between May 13 and May 25 of this year there were 27 “genuinely impactful” (the SW term for ‘this is serious shit’), raw sewage dumps in Bexhill and St Leonards. Don’t fear, the very same beaches are still declared “excellent” for the very same period.
A phrase oft used by SW to explain away the flow of untreated excrement into our rivers and seas, is that of “rainwater overspills”. Sounds almost wholesome doesn’t it? Sewage overflows are only permitted to discharge sewage into the environment during “exceptional rainfall events”. Water companies are prohibited from making “dry spills” from sewage overflows when there has been no rainfall.
Yet there were four times as many “dry spills” from Southern Water than the next worst offender, South West Water. A total of 95 “dry spills” at locations classified as “excellent” under the current testing regime.
In a groundbreaking court case regarding Southern Water over further crimes back in 2019, the offences the company were fined for included “deliberate failings, causing major harm (Category 1)”.
“Southern Water charges its customers for treating wastewater and is required by permit to properly treat wastewater so as to protect the environment. Instead, the court heard SW admit to causing 6,971 illegal discharges over the offending period (2010-2105), which lasted a total of 61,704 hours, the equivalent of 2,571 days or just over seven years.”
The Environment Agency’s successful prosecution secured the largest fine for environmental pollution by a water company to date. The package of penalties and rebates is the biggest Ofwat has ever imposed, reflecting the deliberate misreporting of performance information. This meant the company avoided penalties under Ofwat’s incentive regime. This was 2019. Only two years later they are fined £90million for the same behaviour. Words fail.
So it’s not surprising that Southern Water customers are refusing to pay their wastewater bills in protest at sewage spills by the firm (see HIP 225 We Won’t Pay For Environmental Vandalism).
Law on our side
Sussex resident Katy Colley said her protest group was considering legal action after law firm Leigh Day secured funding for households to make claims. Ms Colley has refused to pay waste water charges on her Southern Water bill for the past five months.
“So far nobody has told me that I have to pay,” Ms Colley said.
Dr Kelly announces a £10billion injection of funds to upgrade dilapidated drainage systems. It looks suspiciously like the public will have to pay towards this upgrading – for up to a century. Her summation of the situation was as far-reaching as I believe her effectiveness will be: “We’re sorry.”
Tempting as it is to give up on a company that lies, refuses to let a mere £126million fine slow it down, and one that appears to have no interest in changing – it is protest that has got us this far. The whole nation knows about it now and a law firm is backing non-payment for customers. So rather than be swamped in the mire, keep fighting. Check Surfers Against Sewage and their new accurate water safety app, write to Southern Water, HIP, MPs and keep on burning turds. It’s about time the tide was turned.
Read about Southern Water’s role in town flooding page 1
Read it and Weep
There are enough statistics regarding the state of our waters, crimes committed by Southern Water and monies both taken and given within the company that even the Andrex puppy would run out of paper, here are a few of the key ones, provided by Surfers Against Sewage:
39% of report of sickness after bathing were linked with a sewage discharge in the area
In 2021, Southern Water were fined £90 million for serial misreporting, admitting “…they may have illegally released untreated sewage into rivers and waterways”.
22% of seabird species have declined
There has been a 92% loss of seagrass meadows
Half of UK sharks and rays are in a threatened or near-threatened category on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
Just 36% of UK fish stock are declared healthy
Shellfish are the ‘forgotten victims’ of sewage pollution according to the Lib Dems. Waters containing shellfish were dumped in nearly 29,000 times last year, with the longest event lasting 5,000 hours.
Last financial year, water companies paid out a cumulative total of £16.5 million to their CEOs.
And the one that I really cannot bear:
“Evidence shows that we have a water quality testing regime that wilfully discounts and ignores the worst pollution events in the country.” (Surfers against Sewage)
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