Sewage spills in Newent
In our latest Focus newsletter for Newent & Taynton we have highlighted the frequent spills of untreated sewage near to the Newent Sewage Treatment Plant near Cleeve Mill, as well as two smaller spills into Peacock's Brook in the Lake area in 2021/22. Last year's figures are not available yet and although there are websites where real-time or near real-time data is available, they do not yet include this area.
Thanks to a late push from environmental campaigners, the 2021 Environment Act stipulated that all English water companies must publish real-time alerts of sewage discharges into waterways, but it didn’t include a deadline for doing so. Currently, the only water company to have shared live data in a widely accessible format is Thames Water.
It is widely known in Newent that the Sewage Treatment Plant is over capacity. Tankerloads are driven away each day to deal with the excess. It was not so long ago that this treatment plant was enlarged, but further investment is not expected until 2030 according to the response from Severn Trent to the latest housing development application for a site off Gloucester St for 375 dwellings.
So when adverse weather conditions or faults in the system mean that our combined sewers (sewage and wastewater) are unable to cope, the only solution to stop upsurges into streets, gardens and homes, is to discharge untreated effluent into the nearby brooks, rivers and seas.
Massive underinvestment by the privatised water companies is to blame as well as successive governments who have failed to compel the necessary action. For those who remember when we had unprivatised water management, investment was not at the top of the agenda either, but our Victorian sewers are in dire need of upgrading.
If you want to look in more detail here are some links:
https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/sewage-pollution-in.../
https://www.sas.org.uk/water.../sewage-pollution-alerts/
