Following a full public consultation, the Government have published the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan and Elimination Report and impact assessment.
Under new plans announced today water companies will have to achieve a number of targets, so that discharges only happen when there is unusually heavy rain and when there is no immediate adverse impact to the local environment.
- By 2035, the environmental impacts of 75% of storm overflows affecting our most important protected environmental sites will have been eliminated;
- By 2035, there will be 70% fewer discharges into bathing waters;
- By 2040, approximately 160,000 discharges, on average, will have been eliminated; and by 2050, approximately 320,000 discharges, on average, will have been eliminated;
This plan will be reviewed in 2027 to consider where we can go further, taking account of innovation and efficiencies.
The plan also sets out that water companies will be required to publish discharge information in near real time as well as committing to tackling the root causes of the issue by taking steps to improve surface water drainage.
In addition, the plan sets out our wider expectations for the water industry, to ensure their infrastructure keeps pace with increasing external pressures, such as urban growth and climate change, to ensure our water supplies remain clean and secure for the future.
We are the first Government to instruct water companies to prioritise the environment, both by imposing new legal duties on water companies under our landmark Environment Act and by making it clear to the economic regulator, Ofwat, that they should challenge companies to significantly reduce the frequency and duration of storm sewage discharges. The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan outlines the largest water company environmental investment and delivery programme ever with £56bn of capital investment by 2050.
The Government has also increased the number of storm overflows monitored across the network from only 5% in 2016, to nearly 90% in 2021, and we’ll reach 100% cover by 2023. And under our landmark Environment Act, we have also significantly improved transparency by making it a legal requirement for companies to provide discharge data to the Environment Agency and to make it available in near real time to the public.
As a result of the Government’s policies to increase monitoring and transparency, the regulators (Environment Agency and Ofwat) have recently launched the largest criminal and civil investigations into water company sewage discharges ever, at over 2200 treatment works, following new data coming to light as a result of increased monitoring. This follows 54 prosecutions against water companies since 2015, securing fines of nearly £140 million. We will not let companies get away with illegally activity and where breaches are found, we will not hesitate to hold companies to account. This can include criminal prosecution by the Environment Agency for which there can be unlimited fines.
The Storm Overflows Reduction Plan can be found here: Storm overflows discharge reduction plan - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)