Southern Water Face Sewage Questions From East Sussex Councillors

Southern Water has faced questions from county councillors on work to reduce sewage being discharged into seas and rivers. 

On Thursday (November 24), representatives of Southern Water appeared in front of East Sussex County Council’s Place Scrutiny Committee to update members on the company’s work to reduce storm overflows and sewage discharges. 

During the meeting, the representatives were asked in particular about the steps taken to prevent a repeat of an incident in September, which saw sewage released from the company’s Galley Hill pumping station in Bexhill.

Dr Toby Willison, director of environment and corporate affairs at Southern Water, said:

“I think we have to be absolutely crystal clear that that was a failure in one of our assets.

“Yes, there was an electrical issue, but the fundamental of it is that one of our assets failed and as a consequence there was pollution directly to the beach. I can’t dress it up in any way that makes us look good, because there isn’t any mitigating defence.”

He added:

“The Environment Agency will take the action that they see as fit and appropriate, however we shouldn’t confuse what was a failure of an asset with the long term use of CSOs (Combined Sewage Overflows) and the role [they] play in our combined network. 

“CSOs do play an important role, in that they are the relief valve on the system that stops the system backing up and stops individual properties, schools, businesses  from flooding. They are regulated and they are allowed.”

Despite this, Dr Willison stressed that the long term goal was to eliminate the use of CSOs — generally used during times of high rainfall — from the system.

In documents submitted ahead of the meeting, the committee was told how the government has set targets for the water industry to eliminate storm overflows by 2050. As part of this, Southern Water has agreed to a midway goal of reducing its discharges to an average of 18 per year by 2025.

Southern Water said it was confident it could meet or even exceed this target, however, saying it was already achieving the average number of spills per outfall per year that other water companies are aiming to achieve by then.

But these figures were questioned by Green Party councillor Julia Hilton, who said:

“In the reduction plan, it says your target is an average of no more than 18 discharges a year by 2025. In 2021, we had 147 sewage outflows in Hastings and Bexhill; even if you divide that between outflows it is still about 50 per outflow.

“I went on the Beachbuoy app this morning and at one outflow, Hastings and St Leonards Number Two, there had been 32 discharges in the last four weeks and 15 at Coombs [Outflow] in the last two months. 

“So I am not clear how you can claim you are hitting your average targets when those are the sort of figures we are getting.”

In response, Nick Mills, head of Southern Water’s storm overflow taskforce, said part of the discrepancy was down to a difference in how discharges are measured. In short, he said Beachboy measures individual spills from each outflow, while regulators use a different method.

He said:

“It’s a way of normalising the numbers, for legitimate reasons. If you have lots of little short spills within 12 hours the Environment Agency count those as one event.

“But if you’ve got groundwater, sometimes spills can last for many days. That is one spill technically, but the EA will jot those up if it goes over a day, so there will be multiple spills [recorded] if it’s a long one. 

“It’s that method is what is being used to come up with the 18 [target], so Beachbuoy won’t necessarily line up with those numbers.” 

Questions were also asked about the company’s connection to the planning system and whether it was truly able to cope with the level of new development within the county.

Dr Willison said:

“In the main —and this is not universal — treatment capacity is not what the limiting factor is. What the limiting factor is, is the amount of [surface water] runoff that is going into the combined system, which then exceeds the capacity of the works.

“The answer to ensuring there is enough capacity is working out how we take out surface water from the combined system, which is frankly a great deal of the business commercial justification for us doing this work, because it is taking pressure off our existing assets.”

However, Dr Willison went on to say that he did not believe it would be ‘sustainable’ for the water company to continue being obligated to take every new connection it is asked to take, saying there should be some limited circumstances in which it could refuse to connect.

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The committee had also requested the attendance of both the Environment Agency and Ofwat, but neither sent representatives to the meeting. The regulators did however answer some written questions sent in by committee members. 

In response to one of these questions, Mark Anderson, Ofwat’s director of corporate communications, said: 

“We are currently investigating all eleven wastewater companies in England and Wales, after information showed their wastewater treatment works might not treat as much sewage as they should and may lead to excessive use of storm overflows.

“In some cases, we also have concerns about environmental performance across a number of areas. As a result, we have opened enforcement cases against six companies.

“Beyond our enforcement cases, all wastewater companies in England and Wales remain subject to our ongoing investigation, including Southern Water.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Environment Agency said:

“We continue to watch closely, monitor the environment and, where cases of serious pollution are identified, we will conduct detailed investigations and, where necessary, we will take appropriate action. 

“We expect water companies to deliver on the promised £4.6bn investment (2020-2025) to protect and enhance rivers and beaches, redouble their efforts to reduce pollution, protect more properties from sewer flooding and increase resilience to drought.”