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Month: April 2024

Baroness Jenny Jones joins River Action

Posted on by lewis

We are delighted to welcome Baroness Jenny Jones to River Action’s Advisory Board! In our latest blog, we find out more about Jenny’s life, professional experience, and what drives her to help rescue Britain’s rivers.

Q1. Tell us about yourself

I’m a Green. That influences the way I live and my work, both inside and outside the House of Lords, whether doing media or pottering on my allotment. I also believe in fairness, which is hard to achieve, but necessary for a society that works for all.

I grew up on a working class council estate on the edge of Brighton. Later I became an archaeologist as a mature student and worked for ten years in various countries, mostly in the Middle East.

And then, I became a politician. I won three elections to the London Assembly, I was Deputy Mayor of London 2003, and I’ve also been a local councillor, so I know the importance of representing people and getting things done. 

Q2. What first sparked your interest in river protection?

My experience abroad made me very aware that clean water, along with clean air, are basics for human health and Nature. The London Assembly did lots of work trying to get Thames Water to deal with things like leaking pipes and investing in the future, but my personal focus was on cleaning up London’s air. I worked with professors who described how they didn’t trust DEFRA with anything they did on either pollution in water or air. In the 1980s, they ended up taking their own samples of coastal sea water to provide to the European Commission that our water quality was poor. I found it shocking that our environmental enforcement agencies are so complicit in the poor state of water and air, but all my experiences as a politician reinforced that view. 

In the House of Lords, it became an issue that I would invest a lot of time and energy addressing when the Environment Bill began to make its way through Parliament. Others raised the issue of the pollution of specific rivers, chalk streams and parts of our coastline, and it resonated with my Green principles but also with my concern for human and Nature’s wellbeing.

Once I was involved, in spite of sewage and agricultural run off being such awful issues, I found a wonderful cross section of society joining together to battle with water companies, farms and the Govt. Good people. And often great fun to campaign with.

Q3. You have had many prominent roles in politics, including Deputy Mayor of London, Deputy Chair of the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee, Green Councillor for Southwark Council and Chair of the Green Party of England and Wales. Over the years, what are the biggest changes that you have seen in UK politics over the issue of water quality and what do politicians need to prioritise to clean up our rivers?

The rise of public understanding of the pollution of our waterways in a very short time has been phenomenal. It’s now something that people talk about on the tube! Obviously celebrities really help to get the message across and very visible eg Feargal, Chris Packham. They make it understandable, the problems and the possible solutions.

On cleaning up our rivers, there has to be more Govt support for local groups to access good advice on their specific pollution. There has to be help to farmers, to limit their polluting run off and change practices. But most of all, we must invest in our sewage and water systems. We must fund the regulators properly, give them real power to force changes, and instead of fines, which the companies happily pay, we take shares in the companies. When they fail, as they inevitably will, we can take the bankrupt water companies back into public ownership.

Q4. You were appointed to the House of Lords in November 2013.  Tell us more about your role and the changes that you would like to see happen in politics to improve water quality? 

Explaining my role would take ages!

The Green Party has few platforms, so when I speak in the HoL, I try to speak in clear language so that people outside the Westminster bubble can make sense of our arcane practices. Of course I use the HoL to make a fuss about legislation and its environmental impacts, but also to get Green messages across to the public, who might otherwise not hear our wonderful policies and ideas. People used to ask me why I was speaking in a debate on, say, policing or health, and I had to explain that there is always a green angle, to every topic, that needs to be considered. It might be human rights, or how and where our food is grown, or democratic issues about our unfair voting system. There’s always a green angle …

Q5. And finally, In your opinion, what needs to change to rescue Britain’s rivers?

We have to be tough on all polluters and make them pay for the clean up, not taxpayers. But crucially, not allow pollution in the first place.

Oxford College rowers honour River Action in boat naming ceremony

Posted on by lewis

Rowers at a University of Oxford college have named a boat in honour of River Action, whose mission is to save the UK’s rivers from pollution.

The women’s eights first team rowers at Linacre College named their boat ‘River Action’ to honour the campaign group’s work drawing global attention to water pollution on the River Thames believed to be caused by Thames Water.

In the run up to the historic Gemini Boat Race between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, water quality experts from River Action, in partnership with Fulham Reach Boat Club, conducted E.coli tests on the stretch of the Thames used for the race.

Using a World Health Organization verified E.Coli analyser, the tests revealed levels of E.coli up to 10 times higher than what the Environment Agency considers acceptable for designated bathing waters graded poor, the bottom of four categories.  When bathing water is graded ‘poor’ the Government’s advice is against bathing. The testing locations suggest that the source of pollution was from Thames Water discharging sewage directly into the River Thames and its tributaries.

Principal of Linacre College, Dr Nick Leimu-Brown said, “The River Thames is part of the identity and daily life of our university, and we are horrified that its polluted waters are now such a risk to wildlife and public health.”

Linacre Boat Club President, Sydney Rose said, “Linacre Boat Club is proud to support the vision of River Action UK to preserve the health of this cherished historic waterway and the people who gather around it.”

CEO of River Action James Wallace said, “It is humbling that the women’s first team eights at Linacre College have honoured River Acton, naming their boat after us. It is a privilege to lead a team of committed campaigners drawing attention to the pollution crisis on our rivers caused, in part, by the water companies allowing tens of thousands of hours of sewage to enter our rivers every year. The damage this does to human health, to river health is incalculable.

“Rowers spend so much of their time on rivers, and they know better than most, because many of them are getting sick, the awful state of our waterways.  Too many of the UK’s rivers are contaminated with sewage because the water companies have, since privatisation 30 years ago, failed to upgrade their infrastructure, favouring instead to reward shareholders with multi-billion-pound dividends.

“We have had enough of this corporate greed and putting polluters’ interests before the interests of the environment.  Together with the rowing community, including all the rowers at Linacre College, we are standing up for river health, placing the polluters on notice that we will hold you accountable.  We have the same message for the government which fails to enforce environmental laws that are there to protect rivers.”

For interviews call Ian Woolverton on 07377 547 362 or email media@riveractionuk.com

Notes to editor
In response to the UK’s river pollution crisis and recognising that rowers spend a huge amount of their daily lives either on or by the water, British Rowing, River Action, and The Rivers Trust developed a set of guidelines for rowing on poor quality water. 

‘Guidance on rowing when water quality is poor’ has been written to minimise the risk of contracting illness due to proximity to polluted water. Included are helpful tips on the importance of covering cuts, grazes, and blisters with waterproof dressings, taking care not to swallow river water that splashes close to the mouth, wearing suitable footwear when launching or recovering a boat, and cleaning all equipment thoroughly. The new guidance has been issued to rowing clubs across the country.

River Action is on a mission to rescue Britain’s rivers by raising awareness of pollution and water shortages and applying pressure on industrial and agricultural producers, water companies, and others. The group brings awareness to the crisis facing our rivers, and the failure of Government funded environmental agencies to address this. To learn more about River Action: www.riveractionuk.com.

River Action FOI requests reveal widespread non-compliance with environmental laws across the dairy industry – leading to one of the largest causes of UK river pollution

Posted on by lewis

The ever increasing intensification of dairy production driven largely by aggressive supermarket pricing pressures, failure to enforce environmental regulations, and inadequate government environmental incentives for dairy farmers are among the factors that have conspired to create one of the largest causes of UK river pollution, according to new data revealed by River Action.

The charity now calls on the dairy processing industry, major food retailers, government, and environmental regulators to provide more incentives, support, and deterrence to mitigate what has become one of the largest single causes of river pollution in the UK.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made by River Action to the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, DAERA and SEPA disclosed multiple data sources indicating that most UK dairy farms are likely to be non-compliant with critical environment regulations aimed at preventing river pollution. The FOI’s reveal:

  • In England 69% of the 2,475 dairy farms inspected between 2020 & 2021 by the Environment Agency (EA) were in breach of environmental regulations.
  • In Wales 80% of the 83 dairy farms inspected by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) between 2020 and 2022 were non-compliant with anti-pollution regulations.
  • In Northern Ireland 50% of the 339 dairy farms inspected by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) between 2020 – 2022 were not compliant.
  • In Scotland: 60% of the 114 dairy farms initially inspected by Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) between 2020 and 2023 were in breach of regulations – with over half of the 56 dairy farms subject to follow-on inspections still being non-compliant.

These findings are corroborated by several other data sources, including a recent statement  by the Chair of the Environment Agency in February 2024, which showed that the dairy farms accounted for over 75% of all serious pollution incidents caused by agriculture, with agriculture being the largest single source of river pollution.

A perfect storm for wide-scale pollution of the UK’s rivers

According to River Action, conditions have aligned to create the worst possible conditions for the nation’s dairy farmers to be compliant with regulations designed to prevent pollution whilst remaining economically viable. These are:

  • 1. Recent intensification of the UK dairy industry resulting in a much higher pollution load per hectare
  • 2. Failure of Government to adequately incentivise better environmental performance
  • 3. Failure by Environmental Regulators to enforce laws designed to prevent river pollution, 
  • 4. Inadequate environmental assurance standards in use by food retailing industry to certify dairy produce
  • 5. Unprecedented weather conditions causing underinvested slurry management infrastructure to be overwhelmed

River Action calls for the immediate implementation of critical remedial actions, including:

  • The UK’s largest dairy processors to introduce wider pricing incentives to reward dairy farmers for improved environmental performance
  • Supermarkets groups to adopt better environmental certification schemes given the clear failure of Red Tractor to be a reliable certification of environmental performance for dairy producers
  • Government to deliver on its promises to ensure the post-Brexit Environment Land Management Scheme (ELMS) farming subsidies become a major incentive for creating a systemic improvement of farming environmental performance 
  • DEFRA & its equivalent bodies in the devolved nations to a) expand & extend substantially  existing grant schemes to improve slurry management infrastructure and b) encourage adoption of technological solutions to re-cycle slurry to substitute chemical fertiliser usage
  • Environmental regulators to start a) fully enforcing existing anti-pollution regulations to ensure greater deterrence against the current widespread non-compliance across the industry and b) extend regulations to cover other pollution sources such as fodder maize production

Commenting, Charles Watson, Chairman and Founder of River Action said:

“The unacceptable pollution levels caused by the UK dairy industry is not dissimilar to the current UK sewage pollution crisis: aged infrastructure designed for much lower volumes of effluent, being overwhelmed by the combination of intensification of use and more volatile weather conditions.”

“With a herd of 50 cows calculated to be capable of emitting the equivalent amount of pollution as a human settlement of 10,000 people, it is hardly surprising that the dairy industry is placing an unstainable pollution burden on many river catchments across the country. Meanwhile, yet another chapter in the British river pollution scandal unfolds, our impotent regulators continue to watch on in a solely “advisory” capacity, and the giant supermarket groups happily count their profits at the cost of the continuous degradation of the environment.”

ENDS

For interviews call Ian Woolverton on 07377 547 362 or email media@riveractionuk.com

Baroness Kate Parminter joins River Action

Posted on by lewis

We are thrilled to welcome Baroness Kate Parminter , former chair of the House of Lords’ Environment and Climate Change Committee, to River Action’s Advisory Board! In our latest blog, we find out more about Kate’s life, professional experience, and what drives her to want to help rescue Britain’s rivers.

Tell us about yourself

I am a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.  I have had the privilege over the years to have had a number of platforms – the House of Lords, as a local councillor and a chief executive of an environmental organisation (CPRE) – to campaign for the environment.

What first sparked your interest in river protection? 

 Living near and walking alongside the River Wey in Surrey I know how important waterways are to health and well-being.  It was a particular joy last summer for me to paddle board along the river with my daughter.  But the Wey is struggling in terms of its river health with high levels of phosphates recorded.  It needs us to protect it.

What has driven you to Join the River Action Advisory Board?

Helping local communities protect and have a say in the future of their local environment has always been important to me. It’s one of the reasons I became a local councillor in my early ‘20s. RA has empowering communities as part of their mission, so it’s a good fit.  Also they are at the ‘edgier’ end of the campaigning line, so it’s good for someone at the more establishment end in the Lords to mix it up a bit!

You sit in the House of Lords on the Liberal Democrat benches and you were the Chair of the Lords Select Committee on the Environment and Climate Change from April 2021-January 2024.  What are the biggest changes that you have seen in UK politics over the issue of water quality and what do politicians need to prioritise to clean up our rivers?

Since lockdown there has been a massive increase in people’s awareness of and commitment to their local environment.  We’ve had groups like Surfers Against Sewage campaigning for for years, but now so many people in communities up and down the country want to protect their waterways and it’s had a knock on impact on media coverage and political interest. However, The political interest tends to focus on sewage in our waterways and the management of water companies.  That is welcome but it’s only one issue that needs political focus if we are to effectively protect our waterways and turn around the loss of biodiversity in the UK.

And finally, In your opinion, what needs to change to rescue Britain’s rivers?

We’ve had decades of treating rivers as dumps.  We need the Government to turn the tap  on all the levers they have to protect waterway from contamination and ensure families, businesses and farmers all take account of how they use water and reduce the dumping of chemicals and pollutants into waterways. We need a new Government to do that!

STATEMENT: River Action’s response to the Wye Action Plan announced by the Government (12/04/24)

Posted on by lewis

Responding to the Wye River Action Plan announced today by the Government, Chair and Founder of River Action Charles Watson said:

“The announcement of DEFRA’s long-overdue Wye Action plan, has to be welcomed in part. In particular, there is finally a clear acknowledgment of the causes responsible for the ecological collapse of the river and the role played by intensive agricultural and the poultry industry specifically. Notwithstanding the scandal of how this tragic situation was ever allowed to happen in the first place – and in particular how one of Europe’s largest concentrations of intensive poultry production could have ever conceivably been allowed to have been established in such a highly protected and ecologically sensitive river catchment – certain specific undertakings, such as the provision of more subsidy for wider river buffers can only be good news for the river.

However, our major disappointment is that while we were promised a year ago by the Secretary of State for DEFRA an “action plan” to save the Wye, we have instead been given today just an undertaking for “the development of a 5-10 year Catchment Plan” and that other proposed actions are similarly vague and lack definitive timelines, such amending Environmental Permitting Regulations on manure use being “subject to consultation”. There is also a thundering silence on critically important actions such as banning new intensive livestock production units and reducing the permitting thresholds for poultry units to ensure the widely polluting free range egg producers are brought into the permitting regime. The absence also of any new funding for the regulatory agencies – or commitment to be tougher on non-compliance means that the current ineffective advisory approach to regulation remains unchanged.

There is therefore a really disappointing lack of urgency in today’s announcement and given the failure of the existing Wye Nutrient Management Board over many years to fulfil its promise to develop a similar set of promises around implementing an effective Catchment Plan, I can’t help feeling that we have been here before.”

ENDS

For interviews call Ian Woolverton on 07377 547 362 or email media@riveractionuk.com

STATEMENT: River Action’s response to the Wye Action Plan announced by the Government (12/04/24)

Posted on by lewis

Responding to the Wye River Action Plan announced today by the Government, Chair and Founder of River Action Charles Watson said:

“The announcement of DEFRA’s long-overdue Wye Action plan, has to be welcomed in part. In particular, there is finally a clear acknowledgment of the causes responsible for the ecological collapse of the river and the role played by intensive agricultural and the poultry industry specifically. Notwithstanding the scandal of how this tragic situation was ever allowed to happen in the first place – and in particular how one of Europe’s largest concentrations of intensive poultry production could have ever conceivably been allowed to have been established in such a highly protected and ecologically sensitive river catchment – certain specific undertakings, such as the provision of more subsidy for wider river buffers can only be good news for the river.

However, our major disappointment is that while we were promised a year ago by the Secretary of State for DEFRA an “action plan” to save the Wye, we have instead been given today just an undertaking for “the development of a 5-10 year Catchment Plan” and that other proposed actions are similarly vague and lack definitive timelines, such amending Environmental Permitting Regulations on manure use being “subject to consultation”. There is also a thundering silence on critically important actions such as banning new intensive livestock production units and reducing the permitting thresholds for poultry units to ensure the widely polluting free range egg producers are brought into the permitting regime. The absence also of any new funding for the regulatory agencies – or commitment to be tougher on non-compliance means that the current ineffective advisory approach to regulation remains unchanged.

There is therefore a really disappointing lack of urgency in today’s announcement and given the failure of the existing Wye Nutrient Management Board over many years to fulfil its promise to develop a similar set of promises around implementing an effective Catchment Plan, I can’t help feeling that we have been here before.”

ENDS

For interviews call Ian Woolverton on 07377 547 362 or email media@riveractionuk.com

*APRIL FOOLS* Capital Water urged to clear debt with £200 million find of Roman coins

Posted on by lewis

Europe’s largest water utility Capital Water, threatened with imminent financial collapse and a taxpayer bailout, has revealed a startling find of rare Roman coins worth more than £200 million. Campaigners have urged the sewage and water behemoth to use the treasure to pay a whopping debt about to be called in by creditors, but our nation’s biggest polluter has different plans.

The hoard of hundreds of Roman gold coins dating from 293AD depicting the Emperor Allectus were discovered during the construction of a long-delayed upgrade to a sewage treatment plant. For weeks, broken pipes spewed raw sewage down renowned ‘Smelly Ally’ in the town and local river. Only after loud calls to clean up the mess from angered community activists did Capital Water fix the problem, and strike gold.

James Wallace, CEO of River Action and former archaeologist said, “The last Allectus coin sold for over £500,000 so Capital Water will be literally minted by this discovery. Allectus, the infamous ‘Brexit Emperor’ tried to take Britannia out of the Roman empire only to perish in battle three years later. Let’s hope Capital Water’s leadership team avoids a similar fate, by serving the customers they have rinsed for decades and restoring the rivers they have trashed. Based on past track record, the question on everyone’s lips is “will they pay off their debts or run for their Cayman Islands tax haven?”  

CEO of Capital Water Sir Richard Head who was appointed in January 2024 – the company’s third CEO in as many years and reputed acolyte of Neptune the water god, said, “Apart from inventing hygienic sewage and water systems, what did the Romans ever do for us? Now my daily sacrifice of bill payers on the altar of financial engineering has finally paid off. As I’ve reported to our high priests – international shareholders – it just goes to show that pollution profits. Our balance sheet is leakier than our creaking infrastructure, so the unexpected windfall is a total bonus, for me personally.”

Hoard of gold coins were discovered during the construction of a sewage treatment plant.

It is believed Capital Water are tossing up between donating part of the coin hoard to the British Museum or building a ‘shiny new HQ with gold taps’ (subject to planning ‘favours’). A Government source suggested they give some of the wedge to the much beleaguered Department for Underperforming Miss-managed Public Services (DUMPS)

because HM Treasury can’t afford to give billionaire tax breaks and be expected to regulate polluters.

Chalkstream Herald gave river campaigner Feargal Sharkey the final words, “Capital Water is one flush away from disappearing down its own dirty drain. Sir Dick is off his rocker thinking he can do a runner with our national treasure. But aided and abetted by the Department for DUMPS, he’ll probably dodge the floaters.”

ENDS