Raw sewage figures for 2022: what’s in our Hertfordshire waterways?

The latest sewage discharge figures for 2022 have recently been released by The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). On the surface there appears to be some improvement but dive down a bit deeper and the picture still looks rather murky.

‘Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink’ – Samuel Coleridge Taylor wrote these words nearly 200 years ago. He would not have envisaged how apt that saying would still be today, albeit for somewhat different reasons.

Certainly looking at the The State of Our Rivers report from The Rivers Trust you probably wouldn’t want to be consuming water directly from any of this country’s natural waterways (which include 85% of the world’s precious chalk streams). Across the whole of England only 14% are in good ecological health and ALL fail to meet chemical standards.

Storm overflows are a safety valve designed to release excess storm water from the sewerage system into rivers or the sea during periods of rainfall and/or snowmelt to ensure they are not overwhelmed. Water companies should only do this under strictly permitted conditions.

According to Defra the most recent data for 2022 shows that across the country as a whole there was a 19% fall in spill events – down from 372,533 in 2021 to 301,091 in 2022.

However this reduction is largely due to last year’s below average rainfall and not as a result of any significant improvements by the water companies.

Independent analysis of this data undertaken by the website Top of the Poops indicates an even higher figure for last year of 375,000 sewage spills into waterways lasting a staggering 2,291,055 hours. This equates to sewage being dumped concurrently at 261 sites 24 hours a day during 2022!

The metric that is not seemingly available is volume but the duration and frequency numbers in themselves are alarming and at least allow for an on-going comparative.

Sewage spills in Hertfordshire

The picture in Hertfordshire is mixed, with the North East of the county reflecting the national decrease with 224 sewage spill incidents in 2022 totaling 1,880 hours compared to 277 incidents in 2021 totaling 3,225 hours. However the South West of our county has had a much more significant fall; down from 234 incidents totaling 4,742 hours in 2021 to 35 incidents totaling 267 hours in 2022. There are no obvious reasons for this and it would be misleading to read too much into any one single year, which may simply prove to be an outlier over time.

It is worth noting a number of specific Hertfordshire sites where there have been multiple sewage spills over 2022. These total nearly 3000 hours of sewage flowing into our waterways, equivalent to more than 118 days’ continuous flow.

What’s being done about this?

Water Minister Rebecca Pow has recently said: “The volume of sewage being discharged into our waters is unacceptable and we are taking action to make sure polluters are held to account. We have set the strictest targets ever on water companies to reduce sewage discharges, and are requiring them to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in their history – an estimated £56 billion in capital investment over the next 25 years, driving more improvements”

Here at CPRE Hertfordshire, we think the setting of targets and the investment commitment is all well and good but the proof of the pudding will be seeing that reflected in an on-going and rapid downward trend in spills over the coming years.

Any release of sewage into our waterways, authorised or unauthorised, is unacceptable from both an environmental and public health perspective and should be called out at every opportunity.

If you share our concern for Hertfordshire’s water quality, including our rare chalk streams and their habitats, please help by joining us or making a donation. Or sign up below for our newsletter to stay up to date with all our work. Our aim is to protect the Hertfordshire countryside for everyone now and for future generations.