CPRE Sussex calls for action after BBC report on sewage spills

Charity director says Sussex rivers and seas should be ‘sparkling clean not open sewers’.

Countryside campaigners say they are ‘deeply disturbed’ by a BBC report suggesting water companies discharged sewage on days when it was not raining last year.

Dry spilling is illegal because it can lead to higher concentrations of sewage in waterways.

Yet data in a BBC report published today (5 September) suggests Thames, Wessex and Southern Water collectively released sewage in dry spills for 3,500 hours in 2022.

Sewage discharge is just one of many threats to our waterways.

An amendment to the Levelling Up bill orders local authorities to assume nutrients in wastewater from proposed developments will not adversely affect the environment.

In effect, this overrules current nutrient neutrality rules and would allow developments to go ahead in areas where they are currently blocked.

CPRE Sussex wants to see an end to the discharge of raw and partially treated sewage into our waterways and protection from nutrient pollution.