The UK government has confirmed that its Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan – a programme to reduce the spillage of sewage from storm drains into the sea – will be expanded to cover England’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), following a legal challenge by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS).
In December 2022, MCS, together with oyster harvesting business Richard Haward’s Oysters, and surfer and activist, Hugo Tagholm, announced that it was taking legal action against the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) over the pumping of untreated sewage into UK waters.
The case was brought in response to Defra’s publication of its Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan 2022, which the claimants said did not go far enough to safeguard the UK’s coastal waters from sewage overspills, and – with some targets set to be reached by 2050 – did not address the sewage problem with sufficient urgency.
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The case was dismissed in September, however, Defra announced during the process that it would conduct a public consultation outlining the expansion of the storm overflow plan to cover coastal and estuarine waters – which has now been confirmed.
MPAs and protected shellfish waters will be added to the list of ‘high priority sites’. Water companies are now obliged to ensure that at least 75 per cent of all storm overflows are prevented from discharging sewage into, or near, high-priority sites by 2035 – and 100 per cent by 2045 – unless they can prove that there is no adverse ecological impact from doing so.
The new ruling, however, currently applies only to inland storm overflows, as the government says ‘there is no common standard for testing the ecological impact of storm overflows in coastal and estuarine waters’, but it has committed to exploring the development of such a standard before the plan is reviewed in 2027.
Sewage discharge from storm overflows must also be greatly reduced close to bathing waters, either by applying disinfection protocols to the water, or reducing the frequency of discharges.
Sandy Luk, Chief Executive of the Marine Conservation Society, said: ‘It’s fantastic news for the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan to include all English coastal and estuarine waters and high-priority areas. I am incredibly proud that our legal challenge has led to this decision from the UK Government.
‘We are concerned, however, that the expansion of the Plan is giving with one hand and taking away with the other, unless the Government addresses a major issue in the small print. As it stands, the new targets are only to apply to inland storm overflows and not yet coastal and estuarine waters. This needs to be resolved urgently.’
The Marine Conservation Society’s research found that 1,651 storm overflows within 1km of an MPA in England discharged untreated sewage for a total of 263,654 hours – equivalent to over 30 years – across England.
The UK Government’s announcement states that all English coastal waters will be included in the Plan by 2050, with protected areas being added to the ‘high priority sites’ list, alongside Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and bathing waters.
Dr Laura Foster, Head of Clean Seas at the Marine Conservation Society, said: ‘The recognition of Marine Protected Areas and fragile ocean habitats in the UK Government’s Plan is a huge step in the right direction. Now, we need a clear roadmap outlining how the Government’s updated Plan will address sewage pollution into these areas before 2050. Our seas cannot continue to pay the price of sewage pollution.’
More information on the Marine Conservation Society’s work on sewage pollution can be found on the charity’s website. The updated Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan can be viewed from the UK Government’s website.
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