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Troubled waters make waves this week

Ed Marshall

The shocking state of our rivers has hit the headlines in the past few days as Government action to halt pollution was found lacking – and a prosecution for the damage done to the River Lugg went to court, writes Ali Morse, Water Policy Manager at The Wildlife Trusts.

This week the Government issued its overdue response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s Inquiry on water pollution in rivers[i]. The inquiry focused on England – which as our evidence highlighted, has the worst water quality in Europe[ii] - but the issues discussed are relevant for other parts of the UK too, especially for rivers like the Wye which starts in Wales and flows cross-border.

The committee’s recommendations were many, calling for big changes in regulatory action, investment and delivery. But the Government’s response was lacking. It spoke of "taking tough action to improve water quality" - yet proposed very little that was new. Many of the proposals in hand are a step in the right direction, but don’t go far enough. Targets on water pollution and abstraction currently being consulted on under the Environment Act are out of step with other Government commitments – the targets are being set for 2037, so ongoing pollution and low flows will undermine our ability to meet the legal target of halting nature’s decline by 2030 - and thousands of consultation responses told Government that their plan to reduce the release of untreated sewage from storm overflows does too little, too late.[iii]

River Wye

River Wye by Michael Miller

New environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, has similar views, with its first official report[iv] published only last week, picking out treated sewage discharges (not just Storm Overflows), and agricultural run-off into watercourses as topics that warrant urgent action. Agriculture and the water sector are the two key sources of pollution affecting UK rivers.  

Many then were concerned to hear Environment Agency Chief Executive Sir James Bevan explaining to a Commons Committee on Tuesday why there had been few prosecutions under agricultural regulations aimed at preventing water pollution[v]. When the ‘Farming Rules for Water’ were introduced in 2018, the regulator agreed to focus on providing advice & guidance to help farmers comply. But it soon became apparent that non-compliance was widespread – over 80% of inspections in 2020/21 found breaches of the rules. A new approach was needed.

In March this year the Secretary of State issued guidance[vi] which in effect means EA won’t currently take enforcement action for certain rule breaches, giving farmers more time to come into compliance. But we can’t accept environmental pollution forever - especially since the rules are based on accepted agricultural best practice, so it seems reasonable to expect the sector to take these practices up. We now need to see a plan that supports farmers to become compliant by the end of the agricultural transition at the latest; the period where we move away from EU-based rules and towards a system in which we pay farmers to improve the environment. We need baseline rules to be adhered to, so that good use of public money is made to then build the benefits on top.

Another example of the importance of enforcement is currently playing out on one of the UK’s most important rivers, the Lugg.  In 2020 a large stretch of the river was badly damaged, with appalling consequences for wildlife and water quality downstream. This week the landowner has pleaded guilty in court to a range of charges. We hope that, at sentencing, the prosecution will secure restoration of the damaged river, as well as acting as a deterrent to prevent others causing similar harm. But many such cases could be slipping through the net – we need better funding of statutory agencies to ensure real protection against the ongoing threats to these precious waterways, including increased enforcement when the rules are breached.

With the precarious state of our rivers and their wildlife, we need to make full use of ALL tools at our disposal to protect and repair them. Our rivers cannot hold on much longer.

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