| Surfers Against Sewage blame water companies for unregulated CSOs |
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| Tuesday, 19 January 2010 11:24 |
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Clean water campaigners Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) were on hand to greet water company executives with the walk of shame as they entered the appeal hearing today. 6 water companies are trying to defend the indefensible, by appealing against designated discharge consents for 4,000 combined sewer overflows (CSOs). SAS were armed with a giant 6ft by 4ft photo of a CSO clogged full of sanitary towels, condoms, cotton buds sticks and more. The appeal is expected to last for 4 days. Today SAS campaigners were in wetsuits with surfboards to welcome water company executives as they enter the appeal at the entrance to the Park Plaza Hotel, Cardiff. They were armed with a 6ft by 4ft image of a disgusting CSO jammed full of sanitary towels, condoms and worse. The majority of water companies were aiming to escape environmental regulations set for thousands of their CSOs. The companies involved are; Anglian Water, Yorkshire Water, Welsh Water/Dwr Cymru, Thames Water and Severn Trent Water. Whilst the majority of the 20,000 CSOs in England and Wales have seen some improvement and operate under a discharge to consent, there are many that are still operating on their own terms, causing unknown environmental damage. These unregulated CSOs were given temporary licences, known as deemed consents, to help speed up the process of privatising the water industry 20 years ago.
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