Public Shit Storm
Sewage spills on beaches: who’s to blame?
Beaches at Bexhill and Normans Bay were closed for around 48 hours on 18 and 19 August after over 3.3 million litres of water, which included untreated liquid sewage, had poured into the sea the previous afternoon from a failed water treatment pumping station. Beach-goers at Hastings and St Leonards were also advised against bathing due to pollution risks.
Southern Water, whose Galley Hill pumping station had suffered electrical failures for several hours in both its primary power supply and back-up system, issued a statement that it was “deeply sorry”, understood the “distress” caused and maintained that protecting the environment was a “priority”. It subsequently claimed that the “faulty asset” was the responsibility of UK Power Networks. However, given Southern’s track record – fined an unprecedented £90m at Canterbury Crown Court last year after admitting nearly 7,000 illegal spills from 17 sites in Hampshire, West Sussex and Kent between 2010 and 2015, and presiding over a major spillage across the beach huts of Bulverhythe just a year ago – it is hardly surprising that local business associations, pressure groups and politicians have queued up since to demand wholesale changes in its culture and performance.
CREDIT: Robin Holtom
On 18 August, MPs across Sussex, including Conservatives Sally Ann Hart representing Hastings & Rye and Huw Merriman for Battle and Bexhill, wrote an open letter to both Southern Water and the Environment Agency, demanding that the county’s waterways and coast “are respected and protected” and pointing out that “in addition to the obvious environmental and community impact, the closure of popular beaches and restrictions on inland waterways causes financial loss to the numerous businesses who rely on our beaches and rivers”.
Howard Martin, president of Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, followed up with a letter to Mr Merriman saying that the sewage incident was destroying the town’s reputation as a “clean and friendly tourism destination”. He wrote: “At the height of summer and coming up to a Bank Holiday the outpourings are potentially destroying our struggling hospitality sector. Bexhill desperately needs compensating for the fiasco that has been going on for the whole summer. We want real hard cash compensation for our businesses and community.”
Labour attack
On 25 August, the Rye News published an article by prospective Labour candidate for Hastings & Rye, Helena Dollimore, putting the boot in on her political opponents. She described as “abysmal” the record of Liz Truss, heir apparent as Prime Minister, when she was Environment Secretary between 2014 and 2016, having imposed millions of pounds of cuts on the Environment Agency while, according to figures obtained by the Labour Party, there were 74,450 spill events between 2016 and 2021 into seas and rivers for which Southern Water were responsible. “For too long, water companies have been allowed to get away with it”, Ms Dollimore wrote. “In the last five years, water bosses have received ‘performance related’ bonuses while overseeing a 27,000% increase in the number of “monitored discharge hours” (sewage dumps), and failing to invest profits back into outdated infrastructure”.
The Conservative party “have been in power for 12 years and the problem is only getting worse”, she concluded. “There is no plan, and the very tool we have to crack down on this outrageous conduct, our regulator, has been cut to the bone.” Labour would, however, “do whatever it takes” to put a stop to the sewage discharges, including enforcing unlimited fines and “holding water company bosses legally and financially accountable”.
On the following day a crowd of around 400 attended a demonstration on St Leonards beach organised by the local Clean Water Action Group (CWAG) led by Green party leaders Cllr Amanda Jobson and Becca Horn. Cllr Jobson told her audience – “We want tougher regulations, and for the government to come down harder on Ofwat. …People have been getting very sick, including children and the elderly. We will not tolerate or accept this, enough is enough.”
Conservative defence
Mrs Hart also spoke at the demonstration but defended the government’s record. On 25 August, it had published a Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan (SODRP) which she welcomed in a subsequent press release as “the largest infrastructure programme in water company history to tackle sewage pollution”. She portrayed the plan as meaning “that water companies will face strict targets and must completely eliminate the harm any sewage discharge causes to the environment”.
CREDIT: Robin Holtom
However, the timescale for the companies to comply with these targets turns out to be rather less stringent than critics are seeking. They have been given until 2035 to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near designated bathing waters, while improving a minimum of 75% of overflows discharging to high-priority nature sites. Only by 2050 will the requirement apply to all remaining storm overflows regardless of location. Learning of this, the pressure group WildFish, which seeks to protect the quality of natural waterways for the health of fishing stock, has immediately threatened a judicial review of the plan, pointing out that in effect it will allow 100% of storm overflows to continue to cause harm without penalty for the next 13 years in breach of existing environmental laws.
The European Commission also warned last week that if there was a continuation of what it referred to as “massive levels of raw sewage being dumped in the Channel”, it would be treated as a breach of the post-Brexit trade deal between the EU and the UK, under which both sides committed not to weaken environmental standards. A Commission spokes-person welcomed the SODRP in principle but described the proposed timescale for implementation as “very long”.
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