Friday, April 14, 2023
The consequences of lower environmental standards outside the EU
There is a terrible stink surrounding Brexit and it has nothing to do with the lies we were told in the lead-up to the referendum campaign. Specifically, it is that now we are outside the EU, there is nobody to tell us to clean up our waterways.
One of the consequences of that is highlighted by this article in the Independent, which reports that there were more than 3,000 “monster” sewage dumps into England’s rivers and seas last year, up 63% from the year before.
The paper refers to analysis of Environment Agency data by the Liberal Democrats, which found that 3,276 storm overflows were classed as having a “high spill frequency” in 2022, meaning they dump sewage so frequently into a single area that water firms are obliged to investigate the cause within three months. This marked a steep increase from 2021, when there were 2,008.
In total, 194,900 spills were counted from these overflows, lasting more than 1.36 million hours in total.
In the Guardian, we learn that more than 7,500 days’ worth of raw sewage was dumped in the constituencies of cabinet ministers last year, with the Yorkshire seat of the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, coming third on the leaderboard, with 3,455 dumping events, lasting 20,615 hours.
It is surely time for the government to clean up its act.
One of the consequences of that is highlighted by this article in the Independent, which reports that there were more than 3,000 “monster” sewage dumps into England’s rivers and seas last year, up 63% from the year before.
The paper refers to analysis of Environment Agency data by the Liberal Democrats, which found that 3,276 storm overflows were classed as having a “high spill frequency” in 2022, meaning they dump sewage so frequently into a single area that water firms are obliged to investigate the cause within three months. This marked a steep increase from 2021, when there were 2,008.
In total, 194,900 spills were counted from these overflows, lasting more than 1.36 million hours in total.
In the Guardian, we learn that more than 7,500 days’ worth of raw sewage was dumped in the constituencies of cabinet ministers last year, with the Yorkshire seat of the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, coming third on the leaderboard, with 3,455 dumping events, lasting 20,615 hours.
It is surely time for the government to clean up its act.
