Lords Report stage brings storm overflow and SuDS amendments to Environment Bill

A requirement for water companies to clean up storm overflows was one of the amendments to the Environment Bill to emerge from the Lords Report stage last week.

The Duke of Wellington won support for Clause 80, to include “A duty on sewerage undertakers to take all reasonable steps to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged from storm overflows. A sewerage undertaker must demonstrate improvements in the sewerage systems and progressive reductions in the harm caused by untreated sewage discharges. The secretary of state, the director and the Environment Agency must exercise their respective functions under this and any other Act to secure compliance with this duty”.

Elsewhere, the government committed to review the case for implementing Schedule 3 of the Floods and Water Management Act. Schedule 3 was designed to set ministerial standards for the construction of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) on new developments and to make any surface water drainage connections to foul sewers of the those developments conditional on the provision of SuDs. Implementation would help limit growing pressure on sewer capacity.

The government said: “This review will help inform our future approach towards SuDs in planning policy and new developments, including an analysis of the costs and benefits of Schedule 3 to local planning authorities and developers.