'No excuse’ for sewage discharge into waterways in dry weather says Yorkshire MP

Sir Robert Goodwill, the MP for Scarborough and Whitby, called out water companies for pumping sewage into rivers and the sea during dry weather and called for greater investment to address the issue. He made the comments at a meeting of the North Yorkshire County Council Scarborough and Whitby Area Constituency Committee meeting on Friday, November 25.

He responded to a question from Labour Coun Rich Maw, who said: “I don’t know if you’re aware, but this week Surfers Against Sewage detected 146 dry spills, which is water companies spilling sewage into rivers when there isn’t flooding. That is contrary to the bill that was overturned and which you voted against, which allows for water to be spilt by water companies during floods.”

Coun Maw added: “Pumping sewage into Yorkshire waterways is disgusting. So, given your position as chair of the environment, food and rural affairs select committee, can that committee keep an eye on these dry spills, investigate them, and hopefully come up with some solutions?”

The Conservative MP clarified that he voted for the Environment Bill in 2021 but opposed an amendment by a member of the House of Lords which proposed imposing a legal duty on water companies to reduce the discharges of untreated sewage.

The amendment from the Duke of Wellington, which was rejected by ministers, also proposed progressive reductions in the harm caused by discharges of untreated sewage.

The MP said he opposed the amendment because it was “not a practical solution” and “would have made it illegal, particularly in times of heavy rainfall, for sewage treatment overflows to go into rivers and the sea”. He said this would have led to sewage backing up onto streets.

Sir Robert Goodwill said: “When it rains in Scarborough, vast quantities of water, sometimes hundreds of times higher than the normal amount of sewage that is produced by people flushing their toilets, emptying their baths etc.

“The way water treatment companies deal with that is to put in big stormwater tanks. So, when it rains heavily in Scarborough, rather than immediately inundating the system and going into the sea, the stormwater tank takes that first deluge. Obviously, if the rain continues, then even that gets overtopped and that does have to go into the sea.”

He added: “And indeed, Yorkshire Water has made the point to me that when it rains very heavily, it is that first flush of water that cleans out the gutters and the sewers and that is the most contaminated water. But it is true that once that stormwater tank is full, what is defined as raw sewage goes into the sea but that is very diluted sewage.”

According to data published by the Environment Agency, sewage water in Yorkshire was discharged for more than 400,000 hours in 2021, while there were more than 70,000 “spill events” attributed to Yorkshire Water that year. A £1.2m study to examine the impact of chemical pollution on Yorkshire rivers was announced last week.

The MP added: “We should never be complacent about the quality of our rivers and our seas.”