Brexit law changes could limit access to UK river pollution data

The legal right to access environmental information, which activists and researchers have used to expose the illegal dumping of raw sewage into UK rivers, may be lost as part of the UK’s legal separation from the European Union. Campaigners warn that without these Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs), it would be much more difficult to hold water firms and government agencies accountable.

“The public has a right to know what is happening in their local environment, and many of our representatives rely on the EIR to get localized data on wastewater discharges in their areas,” says Louise Reddy of Surfers Against Sewage, a group that monitors water quality. in over 400 river and coastal locations in the UK. “Abolishing the EIR would be very problematic – we need to take more steps towards transparency, not three steps back.”

EIRs are similar to the UK’s Freedom of Information Act, which allows anyone to request information held by public authorities. It is important to note that the environmental version requires some private companies, such as water companies, to also respond to requests. This only came to light in 2015., when environmental group Fish Legal sued water companies Yorkshire Water and United Utilities in the European Court of Justice after they refused to disclose data about their discharge of raw sewage into bodies of water.

Fish Legal won the case, stating that water companies are government entities and are therefore required by law to publish environmental information through the EIR. The ruling meant water companies were forced to release data. “It was a long, hard fight,” says Fish Legal’s Penny Gein. “I never thought we’d have to go back to him.”

The EIRs also helped raise public awareness of wastewater overflows in 2021 when Peter Hammond, a retired professor of mathematics at University College London, was able to uncover details of large-scale discharges of raw sewage into UK rivers by water companies. Data released to comply with the legislation showed that the scale of untreated wastewater discharges from water utilities was 10 times higher than previously estimated by the UK Environment Agency. “I couldn’t have done any of the jobs I’ve done without EIR,” says Hammond.

But now the existence of the EIR is threatened by the EU Law Retention Bill, which is currently going through the UK Parliament, and thousands of EU laws will expire at the end of 2023 unless they are specifically kept in UK law. Gein fears that the EIRs, which are the implementation of a Europe-wide directive on access to environmental information, will be ignored by officials who have the gigantic task of sifting through the various laws covered by the bill.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty about the bill itself — we just don’t know what people are thinking behind closed doors,” she says. “There is absolutely no transparency about how this process works, and yet they are moving very quickly.”

Other environmental groups are also concerned about the loss of this key tool. “A retained EU bill could weaken our legal framework, which will affect the health of our rivers in the future,” says Tessa Wardley of the Rivers Trust. The loss of EIR will limit access to data that helps third parties hold polluters accountable when government and regulators fail in their enforcement duties, she said.

EIRs may not be the only casualty of the great Brexit unraveling. “The Environmental Information Regulation is among the thousands of laws vital to protecting our environment,” says Sandy Luk of the Marine Conservation Society. The enormity of the task of implementing the EU’s retained law bill means that negative consequences are likely, she said, “either because the laws are inadvertently terminated because they are not on any list, or because amendments are proposed “. which weaken the existing legal framework”.

“The water industry is backing calls to protect key legislation threatened by the retained EU bill that protects our rivers, seas and drinking water quality, including the Environmental Information Regulations,” says industry organization Water UK. “Water companies remain committed to full transparency, regardless of the government’s decisions on the bill.”

“We are confident that the revision of our retained EU legislation will not come at the expense of already high UK standards,” a spokesman for the State Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) said. “As is the case with all retained EU laws, the availability of environmental information is carefully considered.”

But Gein says he wants more than platitudes from Defra on the subject. “Now we have a lot of support, and we will do everything possible to ensure that the right to access environmental information is protected.”

Themes:

  • rivers/
  • save british rivers

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