Sewage dumped for more than 100,000 hours in England’s protected marine areas

Sewage was poured into England’s marine protected areas for over 100,000 hours last year, i can reveal.

The Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) house special marine habitats and species and the Government, local authorities and nature conservation bodies are legally required to ensure their protection.

However, i‘s analysis reveals that wastewater companies across England poured sewage into marine SACs nearly 14,000 times for over 106,000 hours last year.

This analysis comes after i called on all political parties to get behind its five-point manifesto to protect Britain’s waterways from sewage and other forms of pollution.

This manifesto aims to force political action and bring an end to Britain’s rivers, seas and waterways being treated as open sewers.

Using a pollution map developed by the Watershed environmental investigator group, i traced sewage outpours that were made into, or along the borders of, marine SACs.

The Solent Maritime SAC on the southern coast of England, which includes a major estuarine system that is home to rare sponges and reefs, had sewage dumped into it for nearly 18,700 hours last year – more than in any other SAC.

Southern Water, which is responsible for wastewater services in the region, said that it will be investing more than £3bn between 2020 and 2025 to improve its network and reduce storm overflows.

The company also plans to invest a further £7.8bn between 2025 and 2030 to upgrade its wastewater treatment works and reduce environmental damage.

The Plymouth Sound and Estuaries SAC, located on the southern coast of England west of the Solent Maritime SAC, had sewage dumped into it for over 15,400 hours last year.

This was followed by the Severn Estuary SAC, located between Wales and England in south-west Britain, which had sewage dumped into it for over 13,500 hours.

A spokesperson for Wessex Water, which provides wastewater services in the Severn Estuary SAC region alongside Severn Trent, said: “Storm overflows are outdated which is why we’re investing £3m every month to reduce them.

“To further protect the Severn Estuary work is already underway on a £100m improvement scheme.”

Amid growing public outrage at the health hazards from pollution and widespread destruction of wildlife – i developed its manifesto to provide political parties with a clear blueprint of how to reverse the damage caused to Britain’s waterways.

It’s called “sweep it under the rug” policy! Naive, lazy, greedy and morally reprehensible!

……since the weekend, the prime minister has changed his pitch – urging voters to “stick with the plan” and not choose Keir Starmer taking the country back to “square one”.