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Lord Benyon, minister of state at the department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra), has indicated water companies will begin providing near real-time data from combined sewer overflow monitors as soon as the end of this year.
Under the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, companies have until 2025 to provide data about the frequency and duration of storm overflow discharges in near real time in an accessible form for the public.
Thames became the first to release live data from all of its CSOs at the end of December. It joined South West and Southern who have both released interactive data on overflows at coastal locations.
Benyon reported that by the end of this year 100% of all sewer overflows will have event duration monitors (EDM) fitted to enable companies to provide data on when and where discharges are triggered.
“All the concerns people have can now be measured in real time,” Benyon said. “We are also requiring water companies to put telemetry just below it to measure the impact of legal outflows as well as enforcement for when there are illegal discharges into a river.”
The question of mandating companies to provide live discharge data was raised by Labour peer Tom Watson, as his first oral question in the House of Lords, which then led to other enquiries about progress on improving river water quality.
Baroness Jones of the Green Party attacked Thames Water’s new national awareness campaign – highlighting how water cycles work and the role of the water industry – as a less valid way to spend money than addressing discharges from CSOs. The campaign features an otter as the main character and describes how human behaviour impacts the water environment.
Benyon retorted that the government is imposing discharge plans and requiring companies to invest in improvements and has increased the number of Environment Agency inspections of farms as major contributors to river water pollution.
He said environmental land management schemes will focus on minimising harm to water ways and called on large and small landowners to work together to improve river health.
“We are looking at water quality in our rivers holistically and are absolutely determined to see the improvements the public deserves,” Benyon said.
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