Fish Legal has noted the admission by a spokesman for Dwr Cymru / Welsh Water, quoted in an article in the Daily Post that the Betws-y-Coed treatment works is “currently not up to its usual high standards”. However, Fish Legal, the specialist environmental angling organisation, has questioned how high those standards really are, and why the Environment Agency isn’t taking enforcement action against the company for the pollution.
Commenting on the article, Fish Legal’s Head Solicitor Dr. Justin Neal said:
“I am pleased that that Dwr Cymru has acknowledged that there are problems with their treatment works. The company is discharging poorly treated sewage into an area of the River Llygwy that local anglers know contains salmon fry and parr. This situation needs to be remedied without further delay”.
He added:
“When we made a freedom on information request to the Environment Agency in April 2008 we were appalled to receive back a record of over 24 recorded pollution incidents on both rivers from the Mill Road Sewage Pumping Station, the Betws-y-Coed Waste Water Treatment Works storm tank and the Waterloo Sewage Pumping Station going back to 2004, none of which was prosecuted”.
Fish Legal believes that the sewage system serving the area simply cannot cope with the amount of tourists that visit Betws-y-Coed. Bank holiday periods are particularly notorious for ‘sewage spotting’ in the two rivers.
This case raises a significant legal issue concerning the ability of the Environment Agency to prosecute a utility company for exceeding pollutant levels in their final outflow which, if picked up in a routine monthly monitoring exercise, which could count towards a breach of consent.
It appears to be the Agency’s position that non-routine samples which fail any of the parameters listed in a discharge consent cannot form the basis of a prosecution. This leaves anglers in the absurd position that when they report pollution on the Environment Agency’s National Pollution Hotline (0800 80 70 60), the samples subsequently taken by the EA officers that respond are not being used to challenge Welsh Water for operating a substandard wastewater treatment facility.
Fish Legal brought its pressure to bear on the Environment Agency which mounted a prosecution against Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water for failures of their discharge consent for the sewage treatment works in 2009. The prosecution was withdrawn following arguments submitted by Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water that the company was acting within the terms of its consent.
There is currently no absolute discharge limit at the Betws-y-Coed treatment works with the practical effect that the works could cause several, catastrophic pollutions per year without the threat of legal action from the regulator.
Dr. Neal concluded: “We have asked the Environment Agency to clarify whether it is their official, national policy that results of spot samples in a river on any of the 353 days of the year when routine sampling isn’t taking place cannot be used to prosecute a water company.”
