Thread by @Blacky_Himself

#Sewage
Lots of misinformation being churned out about the DEFRA ‘Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan’, so here’s some context 🧵

I’m not a lawyer, but its part of my job to understand the laws that govern our rivers, how they’re applied, and how they’re supposed to work…

Since 1991 it has been illegal to “cause or knowingly permit any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter or any solid waste matter to enter any controlled waters”.

Controlled waters = all rivers, lakes, ponds, groundwater, coastal waters and 3 miles out from territorial waters…

Specifically for sewage, even if “the undertaker did not cause or knowingly permit the discharge but was bound to receive into the sewer or works matter included in the discharge” (such as 💩), “the undertaker is deemed to have caused the discharge”.

Pretty open and shut…

This is ‘strict liability’ law:
- intention is not a pre-requisite to guilt.
- a person may be regarded as having caused it even if someone else triggered it.
- being aware of an incident and refusing to take reasonable prevention steps is also an offence.

V little grey area…

Where a company was guilty of an offence, proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director etc., he/she was also guilty of that offence and liable for prosecution.

Since 1991!
…

Consenting/licensing of sewage discharges goes all the way back to The Control of Pollution Act of 1974, but was (most recently) updated by the Environmental Permitting Regs 2016. However, dumping of raw sewage has never been a consented activity -
but it has been defensible…

Under the 1991 Act, pollution was allowed only for the discharges “made in an emergency in order to avoid danger to life or health” which I assume covers preventing sewage backing-up into homes i.e. combined storm overflows (CSOs).

This was further clarified by EU courts 2012…

Where it was found that all member states had an “absolute obligation to avoid spills from storm water overflows save for exceptional circumstances” (e.g. big storms).

So to summarise…

💩 It’s been illegal for decades
💩 It’s almost legally indefensible
💩 Directors could always be prosecuted

All we needed were funds & political will to enforced it!

The new bill sets dates we didn’t need, effectively legalising pollution until those dates. In many cases 2050!