UK faces European court for allowing raw sewage to enter Thames
October 9, 2009 12:00 AM
In Guardian
In Guardian
The government is being taken to the European court of justice for failing to stop thousands of tonnes of raw sewage pouring into the Thames.
The European commission has decided to take legal action because of the threat to human health and to the marine environment posed by untreated water.
The commission alleges that the UK is in breach of a 1991 urban waste water directive that requires treatment of sewage before discharge in order to have clean rivers, seas and lakes.
Member states signed up to put in place adequate waste water collecting systems and treatment facilities for large towns and cities by the end of 2000.
The EU's environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, said: "More attention needs to be paid to upgrading collecting systems to ensure full compliance with EU legislation on waste water treatment. Such investment will bring enormous benefits in terms of improving the quality of the environment."
Campaigners say the equivalent of 4,000 Olympic swimming pools of mixed rainwater and untreated sewage were pumped into the river between January and August this year, with the waste taking almost three months to disperse.
London's antiquated sewage works date back to the 19th century and the overflow of raw sewage into the Thames occurs once a week on average, even during moderate rainfall.
Thames Water is planning to build the Thames Tideway "super sewer" to collect sewage before it overflows and channel it to a treatment plant, but the 20-mile tunnel along the north side of the river is not expected to be operational until 2020, almost three decades after the European law will have come into force.
The tunnel is backed by the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, but the Conservative-led Hammersmith and Fulham council opposes the plans because construction would begin in its area.
Sarah Ludford, a Liberal Democrat MEP for London who took a petition to the European parliament on the pollution problem in 2005, called the matter a national disgrace.
"It is scandalous that Thames pollution from sewage is continuing for so long that the commission is obliged to take legal action. The Thames should not be used as an open sewer, with an unacceptable threat to our health and the environment."
Mike Tuffrey, the leader of the Lib Dem group on the London assembly, blamed the government for failing to act earlier.
"The dumping of raw sewage into the Thames is something that happened in the Victorian era. It certainly should not be happening in the 21st century in one of the most developed capital cities in the world," he said.
"If the UK government had taken the issue seriously and acted earlier, this action by the European commission could have been totally avoided."
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was unable to comment on the specifics of the case.
A spokesman said: "We remain confident that water quality in the UK is at a consistently high level. We've invested massively in improvements to overflows under the EU's urban waste water directive. £2.5bn has been spent on improvements in England and Wales since 1989 and a further £1bn is planned for work to combined sewage outlets, as well as an additional £2.6bn for the Thames Tideway project."
The EU is also taking action over storm water overflows on the seafront at Whitburn, Sunderland.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/09/river-thames-pollution-european-union
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