Welsh watchdog tightens storm overflow regulation

The environmental watchdog, Natural Resources Wales, has issued the two Welsh water companies with new, tightened guidance about the conditions in which it is acceptable for storm overflows (SOs) to spill.

As a result of this initiative Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and Hafren Dyfrdwy, which operates in the Dee and Severn area, will be required to have environmental permits for all SOs within a specified timescale or face decommissioning the infrastructure.

The regulator insisted that this guidance would improve the way water companies plan, prioritise, and deliver improvements to address the environmental impact of spills from storm overflows.

NRW also claimed the new regime would give clarity for both operator and regulator about when spills are breaching environmental permits and strengthen the enforcement response.

In a related development the Welsh government has published a new report on the economics of dealing with overflows, by consultants Stantec.

This compares the costs and benefits of different policy options for the regulation of overflows and includes both hard-engineering options as well as nature-based solutions.

The report concluded that eliminating all spills would cost between £7.1 bn and £12 bn while the cost of policies currently under consideration in the UK would need expenditure of between £1.5 bn and £6.6 bn.