What's Going On With River Pollution?

• Published date: 18 September 2023
• Subject Matter: Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, Environmental Law, Clean Air / Pollution, Water
• Law Firm: Thomson Snell & Passmore
• Author: Robert Trench

River pollution has been a hot topic over the past couple of weeks in the national press.

What is all the fuss about?

Currently, the EU-derived Conversation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (the Regulations) protect England's most fragile river systems, such as the River Stour in Kent. According to the Rivers Trust, only 14% of rivers in England are in good ecological health and every single river fails to meet chemical standards.

Poor river health has serious consequences for aquatic life and raises human health implications. Chemicals used in agriculture, transport and the release of raw sewage by water authorities all contribute to the decline in river health. The UK currently faces a housing crisis with the Government setting targets to deliver up to 300,000 new homes each year. Whilst new homes are desperately needed, the impact of increased wastewater outputs from those new homes and surface water run-off from building sites results in further pressures on an already fragile river system.

In 2022, there were over 389,000 instances of untreated sewage discharge into UK rivers, resulting in the UK being consistently ranked as one of the worst countries in Europe for water quality. Whilst new housing developments are not responsible for these discharges, the wastewater from new sites will undoubtedly contribute to the burden on our sewage systems and ultimately result in increased nutrient output into our rivers.

The Regulations introduced the concept of "nutrient neutrality", a means of ensuring that a proposed development or project does not add to existing nutrient burdens within certain river catchments. A development would achieve nutrient neutrality by mitigating the nutrient load created by developments from the additional wastewater. In order to obtain planning permission developers must be able to demonstrate that their development contains mitigation schemes either on-site or elsewhere within river catchments to achieve nutrient neutrality. Such schemes can include investment in new wetlands or the creation of buffer zones along rivers and other watercourses to prevent nutrients entering the river systems.

It has been reported, that the need for developers to achieve nutrient neutrality has resulted in the building of as many as 120,000 new homes being put on hold as Natural England is enforcing the rules in a strict manner. Clearly, this was a concern for the Government as it affects its ability to deliver on its new homes target.

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