03 Mar 2021
Thames Water hopes to harness human ‘poo power’ to heat homes. Company says sewage plan would avoid 105,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over 30 years. From the Guardian On the downside, Thames Water fined £2.3m for raw sewage pollution incident. Judge says firm’s breach of environmental standards in 2016 amounted to ‘high negligence’. Read […]
23 Feb 2021
Last week I was made aware by Jacqui McGlade of a UN Meeting convened by the Global Partnership on marine litter and plastics. The recordings on the webinar on this link is an informative update on this issue with an international flavour. Live Stream on: Marine Litter and Micro-plastic Mitigation and Prevention – 12 speakers […]
16 Feb 2021
Revealed: no penalties issued under ‘useless’ English farm pollution laws Exclusive: Environment Agency has failed to prosecute or fine any of 243 documented violations since 2018 Campaigners have called legislation designed to reduce water pollution caused by agriculture in England “useless” as data reveals there have been no prosecutions or fines issued despite regular documented […]
09 Feb 2021
The Guardian ‘A local authority has admitted it should not have granted planning permission for a vast broiler unit in the “poultry capital of Wales” after campaigners crowdfunded a judicial review. Powys county council opposed the legal challenge, brought by activists from Sustainable Food Knighton (SFK). Knighton is a small market town near the border with England. […]
26 Jan 2021
From Defra A joint industry-government group established last year to tackle river pollution has today (22 January) agreed a new objective to prevent damage from storm overflows. The Storm Overflows Taskforce – made up of Defra, the Environment Agency, Ofwat, Consumer Council for Water, Blueprint for Water and Water UK – has agreed to set […]
19 Jan 2021
The increased use of renewable electricity across the European Union has not only reduced pressures linked to climate change, but also to air and water pollution (particulate matter formation, eutrophication and acidification), according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing published today (14 Jan). More targeted actions can help minimise the negative environmental effects of […]
12 Jan 2021
More than 100 MPs from across different parties are supporting a parliamentary bid to stop water companies discharging untreated sewage into rivers. Philip Dunne, the Conservative chair of the environmental audit committee, is seeking in a private member’s bill to place a duty on water companies to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged into rivers […]
05 Jan 2021
The government has published its response to the recent consultation on the designation of an area of the River Wharfe, Ilkley as a bathing water. In short……. We received 1,073 individual responses to this consultation. 998 supported the proposal and 75 were opposed. Following consideration of these responses, the area of the River Wharfe in […]
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