Haulage shortages drive Environment Agency to ease restrictions on effluent discharges

The Environment Agency (EA) last week issued a regulatory position statement (RPS) to water and sewerage companies permitting them to discharge effluent without meeting permit conditions in light of “supply chain failure”.

The failure relates to a shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers trained to transport ferric sulphate which is used at some drinking and wastewater treatment sites. A spokesperson for Water UK said: “This will not affect the supply of drinking water. As a precaution, however, we are monitoring  the situation due to the use of ferric sulphate in some wastewater treatment works. We are working closely with government and our chemical suppliers to ensure disruption is minimised. This issue has arisen due to a shortage of HGV drivers in the UK. There is no shortage of ferric sulphate in factories; the issue is solely one of distribution.”  

The EA stated companies may not be able to comply with permit conditions which control effluent discharge quality if they cannot get treatment chemicals because of Brexit, Covid-19 or “other unavoidable supply chain failures, for example the failure of a treatment chemical supplier”.

To quality to use the RPS, firms must demonstrate they have taken “all reasonable steps” to comply with their permit; keep records of why the RPS needs to be used; and seek written agreement from the EA.

The RPS also instructed sewerage companies to prioritise the use of existing stocks to treat effluent which has the greatest potential to cause environmental harm, and not to discharge effluent that risks causing significant environment damage or pollution.

The RPS will remain in place until 31 December, unless it is extended.