The Environment Agency is a taxpayer-funded public body that should be an effective environmental regulator and protector of our waters from sea to river, lake, stream and spring.
We expect the Agency to tell the truth, to be transparent and to obey the law but during around five years of campaigning against sewage pollution and compromised regulation that has not been our experience.
We certainly don't expect the Agency to tell blatant lies to the public but the storm overflows video that it published does just that.
This is the big lie from the video - “As they only operate during heavy rainfall, any pollution is quickly dispersed as rivers will be full and fast flowing”.
Here is the offending clip which has been used by other organisations in good faith or, in Thames Waters' case, for example, knowing it's untrue.
Hopefully, as a WASP supporter or, you will immediately recognise the claim is well known to be false which is why there has been such a national outcry about the subject. Why then is the EA telling the public something so blatantly misleading?
The letter we sent to CEO Philip Duffy sets out the issues and we sincerely hope that under new leadership, the Agency will be on the road to recovery and credibility. We have asked him to fix this - and his alternative is to keep a lie in place, as his predecessor did, so it shouldn't be a difficult choice, but that video has been up for almost three years and this is not the first time we have raised it.
Finally, a video of a few storm overflows in action - some of which dump untreated sewage pretty much constantly for months on end in dry conditions and to rivers far from full or fast-flowing - in case anyone had any doubts..
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