Marine Conservation Society to sue the government over storm overflows

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is to take legal action against the UK government for failing to curb storm overflow spills. It will ask the courts to order Defra to strengthen its Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan as a “last resort” after a string of its engagements with Defra had come to nothing. It cites the following.

Pointing out the shortcomings of Defra’s Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan at the consultation stage, but no changes being made to the plan post consultation.

The shortcomings the MCS highlighted included: excluding most coastal waters, meaning around 600 overflows will be able to continue to discharge legally; the lack of urgency; and the absence of targets to implement upstream solutions or to stop harmful pollutants, including chemicals and microplastics at source.

At an August 22 meeting with Defra, being told “that storm overflows don’t impact estuaries and coastal waters because the sea dilutes the sewage that has been discharged”.

The MCS said this was “A ridiculous statement showing either a complete lack of understanding of the impact of the cocktail of plastics, chemicals and pathogens in raw sewage on marine life, or a complete disregard and disrespect for the importance of that marine life.”

Receiving no response to a subsequent open letter to Defra highlighting its concerns.

According to the society, there are 1,651 storm overflows within 1km of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in England, which spilled sewage into the sea for 263,654 hours in 2021. It added: “We’re seeing the physical impacts of this pollution on our beaches. Between 2015 and 2020 we found an average of 38 sewage-related items polluting every 100 metres of beach cleaned in England. At our flagship Great British Beach Clean in September this year, we found some form of sewage related pollution on 73% of the beaches surveyed in England.”