South West Water’s storm overflows were reported as discharging for 299 hours, or 1.8 weeks.

(Cllr. Ed Tyldesley LibDem County Councillor for Chulmleigh and Landkey writes 24 August on facebook)

That is 664 separate spill events across 184 sites, despite just 16.5mm of rain across the South West. For context, a normal August week receives between 15 and 25mm of rainfall – so last week was bang on average.

South West Water have already told me that their live monitoring data can sometimes contain false readings and that individual activations need to be investigated.

Well, investigate them then!

Because we are now left with two possibilities:

Either South West Water’s own data is correct, and sewage was discharged into our rivers and seas for 299 hours in a single week.

Or their legally mandated monitoring system is so unreliable that hundreds of apparent sewage spills are being reported to the public which may not actually have happened.

Neither is remotely acceptable.

If the monitors are wrong, fix the monitors.

If the discharges are real, fix the sewage network.

What South West Water cannot keep doing is publishing these extraordinary figures and then shrugging their shoulders when people ask what happened.

I have been back and forth with Pennon Group this past week and have been stonewalled at every turn. When I ask for an explanation, they ask which spill I’m specifically asking about whilst missing the point – I’m concerned about every spill!

In North Devon alone, WaterWatch recorded 50 spill events across 27 sites, including discharges into the Little Dart and River Mole.

We pay some of the highest water bills in the country. We should not have to choose between a sewage system that cannot cope and a monitoring system we cannot trust. Based on last year’s figures, South West Water will have made roughly £2.4 million in profit last week.

Enough excuses. Enough dividends. Enough bonuses.

Put the money into the infrastructure.

Fix the leaks.

Fix the sewage works.

And stop treating our rivers like a toilet – Read on there is much more below the image – Owl

A week ago Cllr Tyldesley wrote:

Another week, another round of environmental vandalism..

·No rain, but 200 hours of sewage discharge!

Over the last week, the South West has received almost no rain. But South West Water saw their storm overflow systems activated for a total of 206 hours!

The data below has kindly been provided by WaterWatch and shows that even though there was no reason, the SW region saw 353 activations of their storm overflow systems. It beggars belief how they can even call it a “storm” overflow system when it is used even in the driest weeks in record.

Last week we saw 106 hours after just 3.5mm of rain, people were horrified and wanted answers. I’ve had a response from SWW:

“WaterFit Live provides near real time data for all our storm overflows, this shows whether the overflow is active and for how long. This information helps customers and stakeholders understand how the wastewater network is operating and supports greater transparency around storm overflows. We are required to provide data in near real time, and we are currently not able to validate this before it is published. This means occasional false readings can be published. These false readings may occur due to factors such as leaves, twigs, bubbles, or foam. These can all trigger an Event Duration Monitor (EDM) and indicate an overflow is operating when it is not. A full validation is undertaken on a monthly basis, and the data is amended to reflect these false readings.”

I wrote back to express my dissatisfaction that I’d just been sent a stock response and received the following:

“Storm overflows may activate for a number of reasons and therefore each activation needs to be investigated on a case-by-case basis and as such I am unable to provide you with a definitive answer to your question.

However, should there be specific activations that are of concern please come back to me and I will be happy to investigate. It is also worth noting that we review the data from our EDMs and publish our first assured data on our website monthly in arrears. In addition, we are required to produce a further regulatory return on a calendar year basis which is submitted to the Environment Agency. This calendar year return goes through a further quality assurance check before being published on gov.uk on the link below.”

I am concerned with every single one of these activations!

To be blunt, it is not our problem if the legally-mandated monitoring data contains some false readings. The public have a right to trust the data and if SWW think there are inaccuracies then they need to spend some of their hundreds of millions of pounds of annual profit improving their reporting system. As far as I’m concerned, these numbers are accurate and should be treated exactly as they appear – South West Water have dumped raw sewage into our rivers for 206 hours in the driest week of the year.

Fix your leaks. Fix your reporting system. Stop paying out massive dividends and executive bonuses. Stop putting our bills up. And stop destroying our natural environment for your profit. 

Owl asks: WHAT HAS SIMON JUPP*  EVER DONE  FOR US (with apologies to the BBC)

* Former MP for East Devon now Director of Corporate Affairs for the Pennon Group, owner of South West Water