NO MORE EXCUSES – WE NEED ACTION!
IT’S POLLUTION on my mind this week, and the legal eagles at the Angling Trust have the EA in their sights yet again. A ‘letter before action’, which in non-legal jargon is basically a ‘stop it or we’ll sue’ letter – has been sent to the EA, which is relaxing the conditions for discharge permits by water companies. This will permit more, not less, sewage to be pumped into our rivers by water companies.
We already know that the state of our rivers is appalling and few, if any, meet the standards that have been set for a clean and safe environment. The issue continues though, and water companies still pollute.
It’s not good enough, but nobody, not even the regulators, seems able to do anything about it. The usual funding and time constraints excuses are wheeled out time and again, and fingers get pointed in all directions. Ultimately, though, the ball stops with the Environment Agency, and it’s well aware of the issue.
Lifting an extract from The State of Our Waters: The Facts - Creating a Better Place, a blog on 2 October 2020, so fully a year ago, by Sir James Bevan, the Head of the EA, I quote… “We are working with the water companies to reduce pollution, tackle the biggest areas of concern like stormwater overflows, and invest in an improved water environment”
Then a little further down in the same blog….. “(We are) working with the Government to develop future laws and policy that will drive better water quality… responding to environmental incidents (one every 45 minutes) to stop and reverse damage to our rivers.”
Twelve months on and the opposite seems to be happening – care to comment Sir James?