Sewage dumped in shellfish waters without assessing impact - despite over 80,000 discharges in three years

Isabella Boneham
By Isabella Boneham
12th Apr 2023, 1:02pm
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The Lib Dems have slammed the government as “utterly clueless” after data showed sewage was discharged into shellfish waters across the UK over 80,000 times in the last three years

The government has made no assessment on the impact of sewage dumping in shellfish waters despite figures revealing more than 80,000 spills took place over the last three years.

Water minister Rebecca Pow said the government has not produced an assessment “on the impact of sewage dumping by water companies on shellfish” but it is monitoring E.coli in 101 shellfish waters in England.

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E-coli is a bacteria which can be found in the environment and can cause severe stomach pain, diarrhoea, and kidney failure. From its monitoring, the government has identified 63 areas that are of significant economic concern.

Fishermen have been forced to catch shellfish further ashore in some parts of the country to ensure their catch is not polluted with sewage, the Times reports. Sewage pollution can raise the risk of E.coli poisoning and norovirus for people eating contaminated shellfish.

Analysis of Environment Agency data, published last month by the Liberal Democrats, shows that the worst polluter of shellfish waters was United Utilities which serves the northwest of England.

It released untreated sewage from storm overflows into designated shellfish water 39,664 times between 2020 and 2022. Sewage was spilled by the firm for more than 300,000 hours over the period.