Sewage: Cumbria

(asked on 25th April 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to stop sewage discharges in Cumbria.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 28th April 2022

Restoring water quality in Cumbria and across England is a Government priority. The Environment Agency (EA) is currently working with the water sector to tackle threats to the water environment in Cumbria and reduce nutrient inputs into Windermere. For example, the EA has been working closely with United Utilities on delivering wastewater and agriculture interventions on the River Petteril catchment.

We are going further and faster than any other government to protect our rivers in Cumbria and across England. We have recently launched our consultation on new legally binding targets for water, which will provide a strong mechanism for driving long-term environmental outcomes. We have doubled investment in the Catchment Sensitive Farming programme to £30 million to help reduce impacts from agriculture, and the EA is hiring 50 more inspectors to ensure action is taken against non-compliance.

We have also launched our consultation on the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, which proposes that water companies must completely eliminate all ecological harm to the environment from storm sewage discharges. The plan will revolutionise how water companies tackle sewage discharges and will represent the largest investment and delivery programme in tackling storm sewage discharges in history.

Reticulating Splines