Sewage in our rivers: South Cambridgeshire councillors back call for increased criminal liability for water company bosses
A call for increased criminal liability for water company bosses who dump sewage in rivers has received unanimous cross-party support from South Cambridgeshire district councillors.
Cllr Pippa Heylings (Lib Dem, Histon and Impington) proposed a motion urging members to support the message from the chair of the Environment Agency.
Her motion noted: “South Cambridgeshire residents are rightly concerned about the health implications of the poor water quality in our chalk streams especially at a time in hot summer months when local children and families would expect to be able to bathe and enjoy nature-rich river banks.
“The latest study by Cam Valley Forum has shown that the levels of E.coli are highest downstream of Anglian Water’s small sewage works in and around our villages, such as the one at Haslingfield, that are frequently discharging raw, untreated sewage into the rivers Mel, Rhee and Granta through ‘storm overflows’.
“The study points to the disturbing fact that when river levels are lower during the dry summer months, more of the chalk streams would be composed of effluent from the sewage plant and could, potentially, cause a risk to bathers’ health.”
She told councillors at a full council meeting on Thursday that the area was facing a “perfect storm”.
She told the meeting: “I don’t think it is any surprise that I am bringing this motion after we have just had the driest July on record for 20 years, which has definitely shown we have got a water supply crisis.”
“Here in South Cambridgeshire we have got this perfect storm of a water supply crisis that is leading to low river flow, which means that any of the sewage and pollution that goes into the water is higher concentration levels,” she warned.
An amendment to the wording of the motion was proposed by Cllr Lina Nieto (Con, Hardwick) which was accepted by Cllr Heylings.
Cllr Nieto said it was “very important” the chalk streams were protected from pollution, adding: “It is great that we keep on pressing this because there is more that we can do.”
She said the district council had a “duty to protect our precious chalk streams” by making sure that new homes were built to the “highest sustainable standards”, and making sure they were “future proof and ready to be retrofitted to meet water neutrality”.
The district council also agreed that the CEO and leader will call on Cambridgeshire MPs to “urgently seek the support necessary for public, private investment in the regional scale water supply infrastructure”.
The CEO has also been asked to write to the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and to Ofwat, the water regulation authority, calling for legally binding targets for intermediate and ultimately zero discharges, and a sewage tax on discharges.
The council’s cabinet will also be asked to consider the possibility of a formal application to Defra for an inland bathing water stretch along the River Cam in South Cambridgeshire.
By doing this the authority said the water company would be required to undertake water quality sampling and monitoring for at least a year.
Anthony Browne, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, has called for financial penalties on water companies and their bosses that dump sewage in our rivers.
