Title page
Contents
Summary 4
1. What are sewage discharges, and why do they happen? 7
1.1. Wastewater drainage 7
2. The impact of sewage discharges 11
2.1. How prevalent are storm overflows and sewage discharges? 11
2.2. Impacts on human health 14
2.3. Impacts on ecological health 15
3. Legislation and targets 17
3.1. Regulators and their approach 17
3.2. The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan 19
3.3. Enforcement 22
4. Progress on reducing sewage discharges 24
4.1. Progress under the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan 24
4.2. Issues with assessing progress 28
4.3. Issues with enforcement 31
5. Sewage discharge statistics 34
5.1. 2023 data 34
5.2. What does the EDM data tell us about trends in sewage discharges 38
5.3. Other data on the release of sewage into water bodies 40
6. Further reading 44