Discharge of effluent to the English Channel at Brighton and Hove - call in request turned down

A request that Defra Secretary of State David Miliband ‘call in' for his own determination four applications to discharge treated sewage effluent, and sewage effluent in an emergency, into the English Channel at Brighton and Hove has been turned down.

The four applications by Southern Water to the Environment Agency concern proposed discharges from new wastewater treatment works at Brighton and Hove and wastewater pumping stations at Marine Drive, Portobello and Black Rock.

The Secretary of State can call in applications when objections to such proposals are lodged. The criteria for determining whether a call in is appropriate are that the proposed discharge should be of more than regional significance, and raise novel or unusual issues which have not been publicly debated in another context. The Secretary of State found that the Southern Water applications did not satisfy these criteria.

The call in request was made by Surfers Against Sewage and a local resident, who argued that a higher (tertiary) standard of treatment would protect the local bathing beaches, and produce an effluent suitable for return to the domestic water supplies in the area, offsetting water shortages.

One of the main objectives of the proposed Southern Water scheme is to move discharges of storm sewage as far from the bathing beaches as practically possible, and the Environment Agency has expressed concern that the Surfers Against Sewage proposals would significantly reduce the capacity for storm sewage discharges via the Portobello long sea outfall, resulting in a corresponding increase in potential discharges of storm sewage close to bathing beaches.

The designated bathing waters in the area already meet mandatory standards consistently, and guideline Blue Flag standards. Advice from the Environment Agency is that tertiary treatment would have no impact on the compliance of the bathing waters, would offer little or no environmental benefit, and therefore that the high costs involved in delivering tertiary treatment – which would be met from customers' bills - can not be justified.

The Agency is satisfied that the existing proposals for secondary treatment would improve the current discharge situation, reduce storm spill frequencies, improve water quality at Brighton, and ensure that the remaining designated bathing water beaches at Hove, Saltdean, Newhaven, and Seaford would maintain, and could improve, their level of compliance with the Bathing Water standards.

Any scheme re-using treated effluent would be a matter for the water company to consider as part of its long term water resource planning and would be subject to a separate application.

The current discharge proposals and the Secretary of State's call in decision do not preclude the option of such a recycling scheme in the future. However the re-use of sewage effluent from sewage works for potable supply can be difficult, potentially use a large amount of energy, and is unlikely to be cost effective. As a long term water supply management option, a Southern Water recycling scheme would not impact on the need for the drought order currently in place in the region.

Notes to editors

1.   Under the Water Resources Act 1991 (the WRA), the Environment Agency (the Agency) has responsibility for the regulation of discharges to rivers, lakes, tidal, coastal and groundwaters in England and Wales.

2.   To make a discharge, it is a requirement under the WRA 91 to make an application for consent from the Agency. Most applications have to be advertised, and third parties have the right to lodge representations or objections against the application to the Agency before a decision is made.

3.   The Act also provides objectors with a route to the Secretary of State to request him to ‘call in' an application if they have continuing concerns about an application not already addressed by the Agency. The Secretary of State can either call in an application for his own determination or refuse the request, in which case the application is returned to the Agency for a decision.

4.   The sewage treatment improvement scheme proposed by Southern Water will combine flows from Brighton, Hove and associated catchment areas for discharge into the English Channel. It is proposed that a new Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) and Sludge Recycling Centre will be constructed on land at Lower Hoddern Farm, Peacehaven. The WWTW will provide secondary treatment, a process which biologically breaks down the bulk of the organic matter left after primary treatment (the settlement of sewage and the removal of gross solids), before a discharge is made. The scheme will also have new (and some existing) pumping stations and outfalls to improve the management of storm water flows and emergency discharges. Improving wastewater treatment means that more sludge will be produced at the WWTW and this will be recycled to produce a virtually odourless organic fertiliser for use in agriculture.

5.   The Government's response to the House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry into Sewage and Disposal (Cm 4023 of July 1998) concluded that the recommendation for universal application of disinfection/nutrient removal tertiary treatment could not be justified due to the significant costs involved, balanced against the environmental requirement in each case. The approach is therefore to provide secondary treatment as the general standard and where needed to protect waters or to achieve water quality standards to apply tertiary treatment.

6.   Schemes set up to re-use water are extremely limited and there is only one scheme in the UK which treats effluent to a high standard of water quality, so that it can discharge to a river to increase the availability of water for abstraction into a storage reservoir and subsequent treatment before use as a public water supply. This is the Essex and Suffolk Water's Langford Recycling Scheme and is the first scheme of its kind operated by a water supply only company.

Water companies are expected to look at the full range of options for reducing demand for water, including reducing leakage and helping customers to reduce their demands, before the development of new water supply resources. The treatment costs of recycling systems are significant and companies are required to ensure that schemes are cost effective compared to alternative options. Only where the demand management approach is clearly insufficient or unjustified in terms of cost should water companies look at the development of new resources.

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