> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.europeans.today/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Deadline looms for new Environment Secretary to respond to legal challenge against sewage dumping - URL: https://www.europeans.today/2022/11/09/deadline-looms-for-new-environment-secretary-to-respond-to-legal-challenge-against-sewage-dumping/ - Published: 2022-11-09T01:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2022-11-18T00:43:54.000Z - Description: Giving the green light to water firms to routinely discharge sewage for decades to come is not only dangerous, but unlawful. - Author: Good Law Project - Tags: COMMENT, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Justice, Good Law Project, Sewage Discharges, Thérèse Coffey, United Kingdom, UK Politics ### Giving the green light to water firms to routinely discharge sewage for decades to come is not only dangerous, but unlawful. ###### First published: Nov 2022. --- Rishi Sunak has performed a screeching u-turn to attend COP27\. Like many people, we are frightened by what the future holds. We worry about what the chasm between rhetoric and action means for our children and grandchildren. We intend to do what we can to close it, capitalising on our litigation success improving Government’s Energy National Policy Statement and Zero Strategy. We are now also challenging the Government’s [*Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan*](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/storm-overflows-discharge-reduction-plan?ref=europeans.today), which gives water firms **until 2050** to invest in and improve our sewers to prevent them from overflowing into our waterways and coastlines. We believe that giving the green light to routine sewage discharges for decades to come is not only dangerous, but unlawful. This is why we have [launched](https://goodlawproject.org/news/stop-spilling-sewage/?ref=europeans.today) legal action, alongside Essex seafood business [*Richard Haward’s Oysters*](https://richardhawardsoysters.shop/?ref=europeans.today) and surfer and activist, [Hugo Tagholm](https://twitter.com/HugoSAS?ref=europeans.today), to compel the Government to rewrite its plan and significantly bring forward the deadlines it has given to water companies to take decisive action. This issue must be at the top of the latest Environment Secretary’s intray. Having served as a Minister responsible for water quality in the *Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs* (DEFRA) between 2016 and 2019 – we expect Thérèse Coffey to be well acquainted with the catastrophic implications of sewage dumping. Thérèse Coffey is also the MP for Suffolk Coastal, where this is happening right under her nose. Last year alone, the water supplier in her constituency, *Anglian Water*, was responsible for [over 21,000 sewage spills](https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2022/03/31/storm-overflow-spill-data-released-today-shows-no-room-for-complacency/?ref=europeans.today)[,](https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2022/03/31/storm-overflow-spill-data-released-today-shows-no-room-for-complacency/?ref=europeans.today) over a duration of 194,000 hours. But what doesn’t give us much hope is that in October 2021, Coffey [voted](https://www.nationalworld.com/news/politics/how-did-my-mp-vote-on-sewage-list-of-mps-who-voted-for-and-against-dumping-raw-sewage-into-seas-and-rivers-3433000?ref=europeans.today) to reject stronger regulation over water companies discharging sewage. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2022/11/vote-tc.jpg)](https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/1116?ref=europeans.today#ayes) ###### Thérèse Coffey voted to reject stronger regulation over water companies dumping sewage. | [UK Parliament](https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/1116?ref=europeans.today#ayes) So, if the Environment Secretary doesn’t agree that much tougher measures are needed to make water companies urgently clean up their act, we will continue down the legal route. We will find out either way in a week’s time as *DEFRA* has told us it will respondto our [Pre-Action letter](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uRFSV0AdAcGE6UUVFHQguwQWkgWUqVeE/view?ref=europeans.today) by 15 November. *Good Law Project* recently teamed up with *Friends of the Earth* and *Client Earth* to [successfully](https://goodlawproject.org/news/nz%5Fupdate/?ref=europeans.today) force the Government to rewrite its threadbare net zero strategy. And we hope we can win again. ![PMP Magazine](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2021/09/end-flat-1.png "PMP Magazine") *If you are able to, please donate to our case and protect our rivers, coastal waters and waterways for generations to come, please follow this [link](https://glplive.org/q9x?ref=europeans.today).* ### **GOING FURTHER:** *- [Storm overflows discharge reduction plan](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/storm-overflows-discharge-reduction-plan?ref=europeans.today) | Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs* --- | [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2022/08/feeback1-small-flatten-1.png)](https://forms.gle/tRe7igVtMPaiAPtJ8?ref=europeans.today "Leave some feedback") | [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2022/08/share-1-small-flatten.png)](#share "Share this article") | [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2022/08/comment4-small-flatten-2.png)](#comments "Leave a comment") | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --- ### **— AUTHORS —** | ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2022/11/good-law-project-2.jpg) | ▫ **[Good Law Project](https://www.europeans.today/author/good-law-project)*, a not-for-profit campaign organisation that uses the law to protect the interests of the public.* ⚖️*GoodLawProjectonly exists thanks to donations from people across the UK. If you’re ina position to support their work, you can do so [here](https://glplive.org/dd-cev-2701?ref=europeans.today).* | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --- ##### Sources **Text:** This piece was originally published in [GoodLawProject](https://goodlawproject.org/news/deadline-looms-for-new-environment-secretary-to-respond-to-our-legal-challenge-against-sewage-dumping/?ref=europeans.today) and re-published in PMP Magazine on 9 November 2022, with the author’s consent. | The author writes in a personal capacity. - **Cover:** Flickr/[Number 10](https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/50873781833/?ref=europeans.today). (Licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/?ref=europeans.today).) ![Creative Commons License](https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/4.0/88x31.png "Cover photograph license")