The UK government has announced a consultation to introduce measures that would make it easier to inflict fines upon sewage and water companies that continue to dump excessive waste into swimming, shellfish and nature sites.
Less than a year after it was found that many water firms released “potentially illegal” sewage discharges across the UK, the government has taken steps to rein in the sector.
Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, has said England’s ten wastewater companies must issue an improvement plan for every storm outflow, showing the amount of waste that will be spilt and efforts to reduce it.
Currently, there are 15,000 storm overflows in England. These are used to dump sewage in rivers and the sea when treatment works’ capacity is overwhelmed by rainfall.
However, a 2022 report by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) showed that some water companies offloaded untreated sewage into waterways even when there hasn’t been any rain. Last summer...