Latest news with #waterregulation
Times
4 days ago
- Health
- Times
I've driven 4,858 miles around the UK coast. Our seas are in a bad way
This week Ofwat, the water regulator for England and Wales, fined Thames Water a record £123 million for sewage spills and for paying dividends despite failing to reach customer service and environmental targets. Kudos to Ofwat for showing its teeth, but I can confirm that fining water companies after the fact won't stop you, your children, or your dog getting sick at the seaside this summer. As I write, sewage is being pumped into the sea in 47 locations on the English and Welsh coasts, including Sheringham, Gorleston, Hythe, Hastings, Bexhill, Hove, eight locations on the Isle of Wight, Mill Bay opposite Salcombe, East Looe, Mumbles, Solva and Llandudno. For the past 17 years I've made an annual circumnavigation of the British and Northern Irish coasts researching the The Times and Sunday Times Best UK Beaches guide. It's a tradition to begin and end the trip with a swim in the first and last beaches on the list. This year, the inaugural dip was at Holme-next-the-Sea, in my home county of Norfolk. The beach isn't monitored by government sampling teams and I was unaware of Environment Agency (EA) advice against bathing at Old Hunstanton, a mile-and-a-half west, so I waded in confident that the chances of being poisoned were negligible. The E. coli infection that arrived with impressive violence at 3am, in a tent, three days later, suggested otherwise, but it was a calamity I'd brought upon myself. My dog, on the other hand, was an innocent victim. He fell into a hole full of effluent on a suspiciously soggy footpath 200 yards downhill from a water treatment plant outside Exmouth, Devon. He spent the next 72 hours in a miserable state. South West Water confirmed that a pollution incident had been reported there six days earlier, but had concluded that the leak wasn't theirs and the water flowing down the lane had possibly come from 'a natural groundwater spring'. Whether that is the case or not, the greater truth is that we should no longer be confident that our rivers and seas won't poison us. Over the past four weeks I've inspected more than 600 beaches in the UK and Northern Ireland. It was the back end of the sunniest spring on record, and yet I saw significantly fewer surfers, swimmers or paddleboarders than I've seen in previous years. That could be that such fads are out of fashion — in 2021 it seemed that the entire nation had bought inflatable SUPs — but I fear that it's actually because we're all more wary of our inshore waters. Sewage has oozed into the public consciousness via news stories, pressure from groups such as Surfers Against Sewage and the Rivers Trust, and the coverage from The Times' Clean It Up campaign. There's even been effluent on The Archers, with clean water activist Feargal Sharkey pointing the finger for the Ambridge sewage spill at Borchester Water. The official statistics justify our fears. The number of beaches rated by the Environment Agency as insufficient — ie containing unsafe levels of faecal matter — has increased from four in 2021 to 37 in 2024. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: 'The number of Poor (sic) bathing waters rose to the highest level since adopting the four-tier classification system in 2015,' but noted that 'in-part this reflects the designation of new sites not previously managed to meet bathing water standards.' You'll find beaches deemed too polluted to swim in this summer in Tynemouth, Bridlington, Clacton, Dymchurch, Bognor Regis, Worthing, Southsea, Lyme Regis, Weston-Super-Mare and Blackpool. Saddest of all the failures, though, is Scarborough. The seaside holiday is said to have been invented there, but now Defra warns against bathing in South Bay and gives North Bay the lowly 'sufficient' rating that I no longer trust. That's bad for business. 'People think dirty water, dirty town,' a shopkeeper called Fran told me last week. 'No one wants their kids to get sick. I understand that. But it's killing us.' • 12 of the best places to visit in the UK Let's not forget, though, that last year 424 of the 675 monitored bathing waters in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were rated excellent. That's 63 per cent, which sounds good until you learn that in Cyprus it's 97.6 per cent, Croatia 96.7 and Spain 87.6, with an EU average of 85 per cent. And a Defra three-star rating is no guarantee that you won't get sick. Rain has been washing faecal matter into streams and on to beaches for millenia, but the menace of the Combined Sewage Outfall (CSO) is a 21st-century problem. Victorian engineers designed our sewage systems to channel wastewater from homes and businesses in the same pipes as groundwater from rainfall. These combined sewers fed into treatment works where the contaminants were removed and the clean water was returned to the environment. In the unlikely event, as it was then, that excess wastewater threatened to overwhelm the treatment works, the CSO could divert untreated sewage and contaminated surface water directly to rivers or the sea. That worked just fine in the 19th century, but as the population grew from around 40 million in 1898 to 69 million today, lack of investment stunted infrastructure growth and now it takes just a few hours of rain, or a fault at the treatment works, to trigger a CSO discharge. Defra lists 14,254 active CSOs operated by ten water companies in England and Wales. If you see a long pipe jutting out from a beach, that's one of them. Last year, they discharged 450,398 times, pumping faecal matter and whatever else we flushed down our toilets for 3,614,428 hours. To put that in context, if each CSO discharged in turn, the pollution incident would have ended would have ended sometime in the 2430s. South West Water ran its 1,370 CSOs for 544,439 hours in 2024. Severn Trent for 454,155 hours and Anglian Water for 448,938. Thames Water dumped sewage for a mere 298,081 hours. • Inspired by the Salt Path? These are the best sections to walk In an average of 38.6 per cent of cases, water companies blamed exceptional weather as the cause of the discharge. Asset maintenance was responsible for 20.1 per cent; and insufficient capacity 37.8 per cent. That suggests that just short of 60 per cent, on average, of the sewage dumped in our rivers and seas last year was due to infrastructural inadequacies. The total cost of bringing our water system up to 21st-century standards is a staggering £290 billion, according to the National Audit Office, but even a quarter of that would go a long way towards keeping our rivers and seas clean. So it might make you a bit sick to learn that between privatisation in 1990 and 2023, water companies paid out £72.9 billion in dividends. That's just a few drops over 25 per cent of that £290 billion. Our coast is the most beautiful on Earth, and our water companies treat it like a gutter. So let's fight them on the beaches. Start with a Two-Minute Beach Clean. Pioneered in Bude in Cornwall, the movement now has litter-picking stations at 1,200 locations across the UK and Ireland and has reduced rubbish in some places by 61 per cent. • 15 of the most beautiful places in England Or join an organised beach clean operated by the National Trust, Surfers Against Sewage or community action groups: if they're happening, you'll see the posters. Email your concerns to your MP, keep a close eye on your water company through local and national media, and if you see — or smell — a sewage spill, report it to the Environment Agency Pollution Hotline on 0800 80 70 60, or to the Surfers Against Sewage hotline on 01872 555950. Finally, before you head to the seaside this summer, download the Safer Seas and Rivers Service app from Surfers Against Sewage. It shows bathing water ratings, pollution alerts and CSO discharges in real time. Join the conversation in the comments below
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
UK politics live: Starmer vows EU deal will end ‘huge' passport queues and Farage misses Brexit reset debate
Sir Keir said the agreement would also 'cut the price of the weekly shop' and 'put money back in people's pockets.' The prime minister posted on X: 'My deal with the EU means more Brits will be able to sail through the e-Gates instead. Getting you to the beach sooner.' He said the deal 'a clear message sent across the globe that Britain is back on the world stage'. 'Does [the deal] drive down bills? Does it drive up jobs? Does it strengthen our borders? 'And in each case, the answer is resoundingly 'yes'.' The Labour Party also criticised Nigel Farage for 'failing to get off his sunbed' for the debate after it emerged he was on a three day foreign holiday. The deal has sparked a backlash from the fishing industry and Brexiteers by striking a deal for EU fisherman to access British waters for 12 years, far longer than had been expected. Steve Reed: 'Water nationalisation isn't the answer' Steve Reed has said he is 'furious' about how Britain's water companies are run, but stressed that 'nationalisation isn't the answer'. The environment secretary said the government is taking action to strengthen how the sector is regulated. 'But the public are furious. I'm furious at the fact that we have record levels of sewage polluting our rivers, lakes and seas under the previous government,' he told Times Radio He added: 'We are determined as a government to clean up our waterways.' Asked about taking them into public ownership, he said: 'The problems here are regulation and governance, not ownership. The Scottish Water Company is in the public sector, and they have similar problems with pollution. So we know that nationalisation isn't the answer. Nationalisation incidentally would cost over £100 billion." Archie Mitchell 21 May 2025 08:29 Rising wages will help ease cost-of-living, says Reeves Chancellor Rachel Reeves said rising wages would help ease the cost-of-living squeeze. She told broadcasters: 'For the last few months, wages have been rising at a faster level than prices. 'That is welcome, but I do absolutely get that the cost-of-living challenges are still the biggest concern that families up and down our country have, which is why we are taking action with the national living wage, with free breakfast clubs, with freezing fuel duty because I am determined, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, to help relieve some of that pressure that families have been facing.' Jabed Ahmed21 May 2025 08:18 Economic pain necessary to stabilise finances and cut interest, says Reeves Chancellor Rachel Reeves acknowledged that her policies had 'consequences' but insisted it was necessary to stabilise the economy. Asked if the inflation figures had been pushed up by measures including the hike in employers' national insurance, she said: 'When I became Chancellor last year, I faced the very difficult challenge that there was a £22 billion black hole in the public finances. 'We had to fix that, and if we hadn't have done the Bank of England would not have been able to cut interest rates four times this last year, which has obviously had a direct effect on the mortgages and the rents that people pay. 'And also that money that we raised from national insurance, but also cracking down on non-doms, tax – VAT – on private schools, increasing capital gains, particularly on private equity firms, that money has gone into our National Health Service, which is why waiting lists and waiting times are going down after spiralling out of control the last few years. 'So I do recognise that all policies have consequences, but if I hadn't have acted to stabilise the public finances, we would be in a worse position today.' Jabed Ahmed21 May 2025 08:13 Reeves: 'Disappointed… but we will go further and faster' Rachel Reeves has said she is disappointed by the rise in inflation, but that the government will go 'further and faster' in a bid to cut bills. The chancellor said the UK is still 'a long way' from double digit inflation seen under the Conservatives.'But I'm determined that we go further and faster to put more money in people's pockets,' she said. She added: 'That's why we have increased the minimum wage for millions of working people, frozen fuel duty to protect commuters and struck three trade deals in the past two weeks that will go towards cutting bills." Holly Evans21 May 2025 07:42 Tories: Country paying the price for Labour failings The Conservatives have said the country is paying the price for Labour's failings in government. Responding to the inflation increase, shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the news was 'worrying for families'. He said: 'We left Labour with inflation bang on target, but Labour's economic mismanagement is pushing up the cost of living for families - on top of the £3,500 hit to households from the Chancellor's damaging Jobs Tax. Higher inflation could also mean interest rates stay higher for longer, hitting family finances hard.' Holly Evans21 May 2025 07:34 Environment secretary says inflation rise is 'disappointing' Cabinet minister Steve Reed acknowledged the rise in inflation was 'disappointing'. The Environment Secretary told Times Radio: 'I recognise these are disappointing figures. I know how much people are struggling with the cost of living crisis, but no one said that this problem could be fixed overnight. 'And I think you have to look at these figures in the round, we've brought double-digit inflation way down now. 'We're stabilising the economy. We're putting money back in people's pockets with an increase in the minimum wage that puts £1,400-a-year into the pockets of some of the lowest paid. 'We've seen fuel duty frozen. We've had four interest rate cuts in a row now, and for the first quarter of this year, we now have the fastest growth in the G7 so there's a lot of positive information out there as well.' Inflation soars to highest for more than a year on 'awful April' bill increases UK inflation surged to its highest level for more than a year last month after households were hit by a raft of 'awful April' bill increases, official figures have revealed. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation hit 3.5% in April, up from 2.6% in March and the highest since January 2024. Economists had been expecting a rise to 3.3% last month. ONS acting director-general Grant Fitzner said: 'Significant increases in household bills caused inflation to climb steeply. 'Gas and electricity bills rose this month compared with sharp falls at the same time last year due to changes to the Ofgem energy price cap. 'Water and sewerage bills also rose strongly this year, as did vehicle excise duty, which all pushed the headline rate up to its highest level since the beginning of last year.' Holly Evans21 May 2025 07:17 With the Brexit reset, Kemi Badenoch has been stitched up like a kipper As the Conservatives scream 'betrayal' at the new agreement with EU – which will only make life easier for ordinary Brits, and be beneficial to business – they have fallen into an obvious trap set for them by Keir Starmer, says Sean O'Grady. With the Brexit reset, Kemi Badenoch has been stitched up like a kipper As the Conservatives scream 'betrayal' at the new agreement with EU – which will only make life easier for ordinary Brits, and be beneficial to business – they have fallen into an obvious trap set for them by Keir Starmer, says Sean O'Grady Barney Davis 21 May 2025 07:00 Labour postpones women's conference over Supreme Court transgender ruling Labour has postponed its women's conference because of the risk of protests and legal challenge following the Supreme Court ruling on gender. The party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) voted on Tuesday to postpone the event, which was due to take place in September, pending a review. A leaked advice paper had recommended postponing it because the 'only legally defensible alternative' would be to restrict attendance to biological women. The NEC also decided to extend the terms of those serving on the National Labour Women's Committee until a conference takes place and elections can be held. A Labour Party spokesperson said the party must make sure all its procedures 'comply with the Supreme Court's clear ruling' and that it would make any changes required with 'sensitivity and care'. The Supreme Court ruled in April that the terms 'woman' and 'sex' in the 2010 Equality Act 'refer to a biological woman and biological sex'. Barney Davis21 May 2025 06:03
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Arrowhead bottled water company wins one of three pending court cases
The company that sells Arrowhead brand bottled water has won a court ruling overturning a decision by California water regulators, who in 2023 ordered it to stop piping millions of gallons of water from the San Bernardino National Forest. Fresno County Superior Court Judge Robert Whalen Jr. said in his ruling that the State Water Resources Control Board's order went 'beyond the limits of its delegated authority.' The board had ordered the company BlueTriton Brands to stop taking much of the water it has been piping from water tunnels and boreholes in the mountains near San Bernardino. The board issued the 'cease and desist' order after the agency's staff conducted an investigation and determined the company was unlawfully diverting water from springs without valid water rights. The judge found, however, that the state water board 'misunderstood and inappropriately applied' state law. He said the legal question was 'not about water rights,' and he cited a provision stating the board does not have the authority to regulate groundwater. A spokesperson for BlueTriton Brands said the company appreciates the court decision in its favor, which affirmed that the state water board 'exceeded its authority in issuing a cease and desist order' targeting the company's operations at Arrowhead Springs in Strawberry Canyon. The State Water Resources Control Board's officials are analyzing the court decision, which was issued Monday, said Jackie Carpenter, a spokesperson for the board. 'The State Water Board strongly disagrees with the court's decision and believes the legal, engineering and hydrogeologic record in this case demonstrates the sound basis for its 2023 decision,' Carpenter said. 'The board is assessing whether to appeal the ruling.' Read more: A rare glimpse inside the mountain tunnel that carries water to Southern California The company's bottled water pipeline is also at the center of two other lawsuits pending in U.S. District Court in Riverside. In one of the cases before District Judge Jesus Bernal, the company is challenging the U.S. Forest Service's 2024 decision denying its application for a new permit to continue operating its pipeline and other water infrastructure in the national forest. The agency ordered the company to shut down the operation and submit a plan for removing its pipes and equipment from federal land. In another lawsuit, the local environmental group Save Our Forest Assn. is suing the Forest Service, arguing the agency violated federal laws by allowing the company to continue piping water, and alleging that the removal of water has dramatically reduced the flow of Strawberry Creek and is causing significant environmental harm. The company has denied that its use of water is harming the environment and has argued that it should be allowed to continue using water from the national forest. Rachel Doughty, a lawyer for Save Our Forest Assn., said the Forest Service is correct in seeking to deny the company's permit. 'I hope there is water in the creek as soon as possible,' Doughty said. 'That's the objective, is that the water remains on the land for the benefit of the public on public lands.' If the Forest Service's decision stands, it would prevent the company from using the namesake source of its brand Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water. Read more: Forest Service orders Arrowhead bottled water company to shut down California pipeline The springs in the mountains north of San Bernardino, which have been a source for bottled water for generations, are named after an arrowhead-shaped natural rock formation on the mountainside. A system of 4-inch steel pipes collects water that flows by gravity from various sites on the steep mountainside above the creek. Records show about 319 acre-feet, or 104 million gallons, flowed through the company's network of pipes in 2023, filling a roadside tank where trucks pick up water and haul it to a bottling plant. State officials have said that the first facilities to divert water in the Strawberry Creek watershed were built in 1929, and the system expanded over the years as additional boreholes were drilled into the mountainside. The company has for years had a federal 'special-use' permit allowing it to use its pipeline and other water infrastructure in the national forest. The Forest Service has been charging a permit fee of $2,500 per year. There has been no charge for the water. Controversy over the issue erupted when the Desert Sun reported in 2015 that the Forest Service was allowing Nestle, which then ran the operation, to siphon water using a permit that listed 1988 as the expiration date. The Forest Service then began a review of the permit, and in 2018 granted a new permit for up to five years. The revelations about Nestle piping water from the forest sparked an outpouring of opposition and prompted several complaints to California regulators questioning the company's water rights claims, which led to the state investigation. BlueTriton took over the pipeline operation in 2021 when Nestle's North American bottled water division was purchased by private-equity firm One Rock Capital Partners and investment firm Metropoulos & Co. Last year, BlueTriton merged with Primo Water Corp. to form a new company called Primo Brands Corp., which has dual corporate headquarters in Tampa, Fla., and Stamford, Conn. The company says that in addition to the site in the San Bernardino National Forest, Arrowhead bottled water is sourced from various other spring sites in Northern and Southern California, as well as one spring in Colorado and another in British Columbia, Canada. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
