ii UK Focus - Water / Wastewater ENVIRONMENT ACT 2021 - RIVER MONITORING REQUIREMENTS
This article will outline the water quality monitoring requirements of the Environment Act 2021, and discuss some of the issues that need to be addressed in the development of monitoring networks. The author, Dr Liam Goodes, works for OTT HydroMet which includes the trusted product brands of Hydrolab and Sutron, but some of the solutions discussed are delivered by sister company Hach.
Background I
n its 25 Year Environment Plan, issued in 2018, the Government pledged to deliver cleaner air and water, to protect threatened species and to provide richer wildlife habitats. It promised to secure clean and plentiful water by ‘improving at least three quarters of our waters to be close to their natural state as soon as is practicable’.
In addition to storm overfl ows, river water quality can be affected by a variety of factors including agricultural and industrial pollution.
Many wastewater treatment plants are unable to cope with the volumes generated during periods of high rainfall, so wastewater is allowed to ‘spill’ into watercourses. However, the volume of water entering the drainage system can be reduced by measures such as sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) and natural fl ood management (NFM). So, this is not just an issue for the water and wastewater sector; it is vitally important that other sectors also play their part – these include government, highways, local authorities, drainage boards, agriculture, developers, industry etc.
The Environment Act 2021 was the fi rst major piece of environmental legislation to be enacted following the UK’s departure from the EU. The Act aims to improve air and water quality, tackle waste, increase recycling, halt the decline of species, and improve the natural environment. It provides the Government with powers to set new binding targets for water quality, air quality, biodiversity, and waste reduction. The Act also established the Offi ce for Environmental Protection (OEP), which will hold the Government and other public bodies to account.
At the same time as the Environment Bill was progressing through parliament, the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) was conducting its own investigation which
IET ANNUAL BUYERS’ GUIDE 2023/24
culminated in the publication of a report titled: ‘Water quality in rivers’. This report made a number of recommendations that related to monitoring, and some of these were included in the Environment Act 2021. Philip Dunne MP, Chair of the EAC, said: “You can’t improve the quality of our waterways unless you know how bad they are to start with, and unless you can measure progress against a baseline.”
Water and sewerage companies (WaSC) are already required to install Event Duration Monitors (EDM) at storm overfl ows, but the Act imposes a requirement to continuously monitor water quality upstream and downstream of discharges, so that, for example, pollution alerts could be provided to regulators and the public.
The EDM data for 2022 storm overfl ows was published in March 2023. It showed that the ten WaSCs in England have 14,580 storm overfl ows, and that 91% of these were fi tted with EDMs. On average, each overfl ow spilled 23 times for an average of 5.8 hours.
Around 89% of storm overfl ows discharge to rivers; 10% to coastal and estuarine waters, and 1% to groundwater.
Environment Act 2021
monitoring requirements In section 81 of Part 5 (Water) of the Environment Act 2021, sewerage undertakers wholly or mainly in England are required to report on discharges from storm overfl ows in near-real time (within one hour). This EDM data will show where the discharge to the environment happened, when it started and when it ended.
Data from EDM improves visibility of sewage discharges into rivers and watercourses and helps sewerage companies to better understand where improvements can be made. EDM also helps the Environment Agency to monitor the performance of water companies. However, EDM does not provide any information on the volume of the fl ow, or the effects on the receiving waters. One of the main purposes, therefore, of Section 82 is to determine whether storm overfl ows have affected water quality, and to make this information available in real-time.
Section 82 of the Environment Act 2021
reads as follows: (1) A sewerage undertaker whose area is wholly or mainly in England must continuously monitor the quality of water upstream and downstream of an asset within subsection (2) for the purpose of obtaining the information referred to in
subsection (3).
(2) The assets referred to in subsection (1) are—
(a) a storm overfl ow of the sewerage undertaker, and
(b) sewage disposal works comprised in the sewerage system of the sewerage undertaker, where the storm overfl ow or works
discharge into a watercourse.
Sensor array of the Hydrolab HL7 multiparameter sonde
(3) The information referred to in subsection (1) is information as to the quality of the water by reference to—
(a) levels of dissolved oxygen, (b) temperature and pH values, (c) turbidity, (d) levels of ammonia, and (e) anything else specifi ed in regulations made by the Secretary of State.
Defra Consultation: implementing Sections 81 and 82
The implementation of the Act’s monitoring requirements has prompted a number of important questions, and it is anticipated that Defra will respond to these issues by publishing appropriate technical guidance.
The consultation ran in May 2023, and sought the views of invited consultees on issues such as measurement parameters – whether it would be possible to monitor phosphates and nitrates, and whether ammonia or dissolved oxygen should be used to determine the maximum point of harm. Consultees were also invited to submit comments and suggestions relating to the location of downstream monitors, exemptions and the defi nition of a cluster – a group of discharges that are suffi ciently close for just one pair of monitors to be necessary. Importantly, the consultation also sought views on the ways in which data could be managed and displayed.
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