15 June 2006
WATER SERVICE DISCHARGES IMPROVED
The third Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) report on the environmental regulation of discharges by DRD's Water Service notes improvements.
The 2004 report details how environmental discharges made by the Department for Regional Development's Water Service complied with EHS and European discharge standards during 2004. It includes updates on 2001-2003 reports' information, details of improvements being progressed for sewer systems at many major towns and summarises the Water Service future investment plans to further improve discharge compliance.
EHS Chief Executive Richard Rogers said, "This report shows that sustained improvement since 2001 has raised compliance from 58% in 2001 to 80% in 2004.
Significant additional resources to address the historic underfunding of wastewater treatment are being made available, with almost £40 million invested in remedial work in 2003/2004 and we are seeing the initial benefits of that investment. The introduction of self-financing arrangements for water and sewerage services from 2007 should assist in maintaining the investment required, to enable Northern Ireland to develop in a sustainable manner.''
Mr Rogers said: "EHS has established itself as an effective regulator under the present regulatory regime and is preparing to meet the challenge arising from the Water Service moving to a Government Owned Company from April 2007 and the resultant loss of Crown immunity. EHS will have a key role in ensuring the new organisation meets the level of performance that the public expects and that appropriate action is taken where necessary."
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. EHS is Northern Ireland's environmental regulator, and is an agency of the Department of the Environment (DoE). Within EHS, the Water Management Unit (WMU) is responsible for regulation of DRD Water Service discharges to the water environment. WMU is also responsible for responding to pollution incidents, monitoring the chemical and biological quality of the aquatic environment, regulation of effluent discharges and agricultural pollution, pollution prevention advice and education, and the development and implementation of river basin management plans.
2. Water Service, an executive agency within the Department for Regional Development (DRD) is responsible for the supply and distribution of public drinking water and the collection, treatment and disposal of wastewater.
3. Under the Water (NI) Order 1999, EHS sets consents for discharges for privately operated sewage treatment works, as well as industrial discharges. Sewage and other wastewater discharges made by the WS also require discharge standards. Whilst WS, as a crown body, is not bound by the statutory discharge consent requirements of the Order a separate, but technically similar, regulatory system has been established to control its discharges.
4. From April 2007, Water Service will become a Government Owned Company (GoCo) and Northern Ireland's water and sewerage services would be fully self-financing from 2009/10.
5. Water Service and EHS are fully engaged in the process of developing a regulatory system that will take account of the current condition of Water Service's infrastructure while ensuring that the new water GoCo is otherwise subject to the full legislative requirements of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999.
6. Water Service is subject to the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment (UWWT) Directive and the Regulations that implement it. Water Service discharges are regulated by standards and conditions set out in what are termed 'registered standards', which are placed on a public register, along with compliance information.
7. The Assembly Public Accounts Committee in its Report on River Pollution (2001) recommended that EHS should prepare a report on its regulation of Water Service discharges for presentation to the Assembly. The report was to include details of breaches of consent during the year, and an estimate of the cost of bringing the relevant discharges within consent limits (to be provided by Water Service). This report is partly in response to that recommendation.
8. Compliance with regulatory standards in Northern Ireland is significantly lower than elsewhere in the UK. Compliance in England and Wales has been at least 95% for the last five years, whilst, in Scotland, it has been 89% for the last two years, and above 80% since 1997.
9. The report is on the web at http://www.ehsni.gov.uk/environment/waterManage/regulation_of_Discharges/reg_sewage.shtml
10. For further News Media information contact DOE Information Office: Tel 028 9054 0003.
Click here to print this press release.
