Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: My Lords, I am sure the Minister knows that as of last Saturday, 28 January, Thames Water’s sewage overflow at Stratfield Mortimer had been dumping sewage non-stop for a total of 944 hours and 15 minutes—that is, dumping sewage continuously since 19 December last year. Does the Minister agree that, since Thames Water’s national television advertising must be costing quite a lot of...
Rebecca Pow: Event Duration Monitors (EDM) record the number of times there has been a discharge of storm sewage and for how long each discharge was for. The Water Companies send in an annual summary which gives the total number of discharges per year and the total duration per year for each site where it is a permit requirement. The 2020 data is not yet available as it is submitted at the end of...
Ross Finnie: Precise information on the amount of sewage sludge produced in Scotland is not held centrally. This is a matter for the operators concerned (principally Scottish Water). "Sewage sludge" is simply a term for a product of waste water treatment. No sewage sludge, therefore, is produced in Scotland by treatment outwith Scotland, though it is possible that sewage sludge produced outwith Scotland...
Angela Smith: ...Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, as the body responsible for maintenance of the Connswater River as a drainage channel, will take action to remove the obstruction. With regard to sewage related litter from sewage overflows into the river, the Water Service of the Department for Regional Development has recently installed screens at the Connswater Road pumping station to...
Wera Hobhouse: Last night the Environment Secretary chose to say on ITV that there is “misinformation” about sewage being dumped into our rivers, rather than acknowledging the problem. That is really insulting. People have been made sick after swimming in raw sewage. It is a serious and disgusting stain on our country, yet the Environment Secretary blames “misinformation” for the scandal. May we...
Baroness Northover: We are very concerned by a recent report from the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicating that 35,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage was released into the streets of Gaza last week. 291 water and sewage facilities have been severely affected by fuel shortages, and six sewage pumping stations are currently at risk of a similar overflow. According to the World Health...
Rebecca Pow: Southern Water operates several assets with Environmental Permits authorising the discharge of dilute storm sewage into Langstone Harbour or to the Solent during times of heavy and persistent rainfall. These discharges take place via storm overflows. Storm sewage discharges are necessary because England has a 'combined' sewerage system in many urban centres which convey both rainwater and...
In cases of Bills for constructing gas works. Or sewage works, or works for the manufacture or conversion of the residual products of gas or sewage, or for making or constructing a sewage farm, cemetery, burial ground, crematorium, destructor, hospital for infectious disease, or station for generating electrical energy, the notices shall set forth and specify the lands in or upon which such...
Elliot Morley: ...of the requested years is either incomplete, or not readily available without disproportionate effort in the available time. Readily available information is presented in the following table, where sewage works in South West London are taken to be those listed. Information for 2002 is not included as it is incomplete. Treated sewage effluent from South West London sewage treatment works...
Therese Coffey: There are currently no routine discharges of raw sewage by water companies in England. Discharges from sewage treatment works must comply with permits issued under the Environmental Permitting Regulations (2010) by the Environment Agency. These permits are designed to protect the environment with the provision of sewage treatment to ensure compliance with relevant environmental directives...
Lord Gardiner of Kimble: There is no automatic requirement for water companies to provide and operate specific phosphorus removal treatment at sewage treatment works. The requirement for such treatment depends on the environmental legislation and standards that apply to the receiving water into which a sewage treatment work discharges. Where a receiving water is a designated sensitive area (eutrophic) under the...
David Heathcoat-Amory: ...debate, but I shall spend one or two minutes on more general matters and remind the House of this country's good record. A high percentage of our households—some 96 per cent.—are connected to sewage systems. This bears comparison with any country in Europe. A study in 1987 showed that 95 per cent. of river length in this country was of good or fair quality, compared with 75 per cent....
Jim McMahon: Three weeks ago, the Secretary of State led Tory MPs through the voting lobby to vote down Labour’s Bill that would have finally ended the Tory sewage scandal by making polluters pay. Last week, water companies apologised for their part in the Tory sewage scandal. Given her own track record, more recently and previously as water Minister, overseeing a doubling of sewage dumping, will she...
Rebecca Pow: This is the first government to take such significant steps to tackle sewage overflows, including those on the river Graveney. We have been clear to water companies that they must tackle sewage overflows urgently, and the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan will deliver the largest infrastructure investment in water company history to clean up our rivers. Under the Environment Act we...
Baroness Verma: The Office of the Quartet Representative (OQR) has regular discussions with the Government of Israel on the need to make progress on upgrading sewage treatment facilities in Gaza. The North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment Project, managed by the World Bank, completed its first phase, to divert sewage away from the Beit Lahiya site, in January 2010. The second phase, to build a new sewage...
Elliot Morley: Information on the yearly volume of sewage disposed of in the English Channel (East Kent (Dover) to Cornwall) is not held centrally and could not be provided without disproportionate cost. Southern Water Services Limited, which provides sewerage services for East and West Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, estimates that 28.3 million m 3 of preliminary treated effluent is...
Emma Lewell-Buck: My constituent Mr Latimer has been raising concerns about raw sewage dumping at the Whitburn end of Seaburn beach and into the North sea for two decades. In October 2012, before I was his MP, the European Court of Justice found that raw sewage was being dumped at this location and that the United Kingdom had failed to fulfil its obligations and breached standards for treating wastewater. In...
Luke Pollard: Days from COP26, I must tell the Minister that the episode with raw sewage has not done Britain’s reputation going into that conference any good. The Government whipping their own MPs to vote against an amendment to end the routine discharge of raw sewage does nothing to build confidence and has rightly sparked a public outcry. Raw sewage is being routinely discharged today, right now and...
Mr Denis Howell: I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. The clause concerns itself with the laying of pipes for the transporting of sewage sludge. Its purpose is to enable water authorities to lay pipes for the disposal of sewage and other materials from sewage disposal works. At present water authorities do not have that power although they have the powers to construct sewers to bring sewage...
Samantha Dixon: ..., and out into a clean and glistening sea. Sadly, that is not the image that constituents up and down the country are familiar with. Instead, they are faced with the reality of endless hours of raw sewage being dumped into our rivers. The Government have been weak on water companies and soft on sewage. As a result, our rivers and seas are plagued by sewage, agricultural run-off and diffuse...
