Understanding the impact of Section 82 and SOAF: Insights from a wastewater sector roundtable

Sector struggles to navigate Environment Agency red tape “nightmare”

Efforts to improve the management of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) include regulatory measures such as the Environment Agency’s Storm Overflow Assessment Framework (SOAF) version 2, which sets out tighter spill frequency triggers, enhanced environmental impact assessments, and cost-benefit analysis requirements.

Meanwhile, Section 82 of the Environment Act mandates water quality monitoring upstream and downstream of every storm overflow and sewage treatment works, and continuous monitoring at high-risk outfalls. But participants at a Utility Week roundtable, held in association with Adler & Allan, argued that meeting Section 82 requirements is currently not viable.

The logistics needed to implement Section 82 are “a nightmare”, said one participant, involving issues gaining access close to certain outfalls, putting in power connections, and achieving real-time data flows at locations “in the middle of nowhere with no signal”.

They went on to say: “I don't think the supplier industry is in a position where they can facilitate all the things we want... there isn’t enough knowledge on how we'll implement it to be able to achieve the timescales, even with the best intentions.”

Another participant agreed that monitoring technology is not mature enough for the speedy ramp-up demanded by the government, so “water companies will spend an awful lot of money without achieving outcomes”.

The discussion turned to issues gaining permission to install overflow monitors on third-party land, in particular land owned by farmers. “We've had experience of farmers saying: ‘No thank you, we don't want any of this monitoring anywhere near our fields’”, said one wastewater executive.

This view was supported by another delegate who revealed that a year-one programme of installations for Section 82 was only successful because work focused on water company land. Without the necessary powers under section 159 of the Water Industry Act 1991 (enabling utilities to access private land to install infrastructure) they said, “we can't see how we're going to be able to do it, because farmers are just not going to let us on their land”.

There was consensus at the roundtable on the need for the industry to come together to address Section 82 challenges, and plans are underway to reconvene a joint group involving Defra, the Environment Agency, and water companies to discuss the practicalities of implementation.

The prospect that the legislation may ultimately be pulled or altered as part of wider industry reforms was raised as a concern for the supply chain, which required certainty when deciding how much money and resources to commit.