Instant Genius - Solving the UK’s water pollution problem, with Dr Tanja Radu

Episode Date: June 4, 2023

Currently only 14 per cent of UK rivers are rated as having a ‘good’ ecological status. Agricultural runoff and the release of untreated sewage are the leading causes of water pollution. But why are rivers in such a bad way and what can we do about it? In this episode we speak to Dr Tanja Radu, senior lecturer in water engineering at Loughborough University. She tells us how we’ve reached this point in river pollution, the risk it poses to human health and what we can do to set things right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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a bite-sized master class in podcast form I'm Jason Goodyear commissioning editor at BBC Science Focus magazine Currently, only a small number of rivers in the UK are rated as having a good or excellent ecological status. Agricultural runoff and the release of untreated sewage are the leading causes of water pollution. But why are the rivers in such a bad way and what can we do about it? In this episode, we speak to Dr Tanya Roddy, Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering in Loughborough University. She tells us how we've reached this point, the risk to huge.

human health and what we can do to set things right. Okay, so we're talking about the situation of water pollution in the UK. So what exactly do we mean when we talk about water pollution? You know, what is it and what are the leading causes? Water pollution refers to certain compounds, mostly chemicals and microorganisms, occurring in water well about their natural background concentrations. This contamination of water sources makes the water unusable for activities such as drinking, cooking and swimming, for example. Furthermore, it may make it harmful or toxic for organisms living in water bodies and for human health.

It is important to note that some of those compounds are a product of naturally occurring processes and as such will end up in the water without any human interferences. The natural waters have their own way of self-cleaning and dealing with this. However, when we start releasing harmful substances many times over the nature's limit to neutralise them, we are ending up with highly polluted waters. How widespread is the problem of water pollution in the UK? Almost all of the UK waters waste are polluted. In 2022, a House of Commons Committee report on the state of UK rivers,

included that no river in England was free from chemical contamination. This has been attributed to the so-called chemical cocktail of pollutants coming from agriculture, sewage, roads and single-use plastics. If we look across the UK, Scotland has the largest number of high water quality rivers with up to 66% in good condition. This number goes down to 40% for Wales. In Northern Ireland, it's 33%. And finally, only 14% of English rivers had a good ecological status as defined in the Water Framework Directive.

In addition, there have been numerous incidents of raw sewage being released into seawater. As a consequence, many of the beaches are no longer suitable for swimming or are temporarily closed for baiting purposes. So how do we go about measuring this then? What are the categories? You mentioned a rating of good. What does that mean? The water quality of England's designated baiting waters is regularly being checked by the Environment Agency.

So they are in charge of the quality. Each year, they take up to 20 water samples at each of the sites during the baiting seasons between months of May and September. Classification of water quality for each site, represents the state of baiting waters based on the result for the previous four years. There are four categories, four classifications as excellent, good, sufficient and poor quality. The excellent water, of course, have the highest quality, whilst the sites classified as poor require a sign to be displayed advising against baiting in that area.

There is a set of standardized signs and symbols in use to inform the public of baiting water quality. The potential presence of fecal matter, which comes from sewage sludge, is determined by testing for two specific fecal indicator organisms. E. coli and intestinal enterococci. Their presence is then used to classify the waters based on their amounts of the indicator organisms. and this is how we categorize water in those four categories. The criteria for coastal baiting waters and inland baiting waters slightly differs, with inland waters having higher threshold values for both parameters. Also, we sometimes experience our temporary drop in water quality,

which may be caused by a short-term pollution. These are events which have known origins and are predictable in nature, and they affect quality of baiting waters for up to 72 hours. In that case, the public is informed of the temporary poor water quality and we use pollution risk forecasting for assessment of quality of these waters and later on based on on this assessment, we inform the public of temporary poor quality of water. So what are the leading causes of water pollution?

Okay, so even though when we talk about water pollution, many would think of a raw sewage as the main contributor or main cause of the pollution, this is only a part of the problem. It has been estimated by the Environment Agency that the excessive use of fertilizer and pesticides in agriculture and consequent agricultural runoff cause approximately 40% of all water pollution. And then the release of row sewage contributes by a further 35%. Finally, 18% of the share goes to all other urban and transport-related runoff. We also need to keep in mind the emerging pollutants, such as microplastics, pharmaceuticals, or so-called forever chemicals, PFS, all of which are very difficult to remove from water and will probably be significant parts. part of future legislation and policies. Their effect on human health is yet to be fully understood. So having said that, what damage can water pollution cause to nature and even human life? There are numerous ways in which row sewage can affect both human life and the environment.

For example, some pathogens coming from human waste may cause severe skin, ear, eye or chest infections. After swimming in contaminated water and potentially swallowing water, humans may also experience upset stomachs or diarrhea. Hepatitis and ecoli can also develop as a consequence. These dangers also extend to pets, for example dogs being exposed to contaminated water. Nutrients present in sewage and in agricultural runoff, and here we are talking mostly about phosphate and nitrate, can also disturb the ecological balance of natural waters by promoting algal blooms. Algae can have a great impact on ecosystems and their diversity. Their overgrowth can also trigger a process of eutrification.

This is a chain reaction leading to water depleted in oxygen, which in turn can endanger all plant and animal species living in water bodies. For example, water insects may perish in oxygen poor waters, which in turn then may affect fish feeding on those insects. Furthermore, blue-green cyanobacteria blooms tend to develop in slow and stagnant waters. They produce toxins which are harmful both to water organisms and to humans. A good example is that the Wildlife Trust estimates that 10% of fresh water and wetland species are at risk of extinction due to the increasing pollution in our waters.

So let's have a look at management now then. How is waste water managed in the UK? And what is something you hear quite a lot about the combined sewer overflow network? So how does this all work? Under normal circumstances, wastewater from our homes will travel via the sewer network and reach wastewater treatment plants where this water is then being processed. UK's sewer network is 347,000 kilometres long. and it receives 11 billion liters of water, which is then treated in one of 9,000 sewage treatment works.

Once wastewater passes all stages of treatment within the wastewater treatment plants, it is safe to be released back into the environment as treated affluent. England has a so-called combined sewer system, which means that wastewater from our homes and rainwater from drains is carried by the same system of pipes to wastewater treatment plants. Heavy rains and sudden inflow of large quantities of rainwater

may cause the sewer pipes to temporarily reach their full capacity. In order to prevent sewage from backing up and potentially flooding back our homes, combined sewer overflows or CFOs have been developed as a type of exhaust valves to release raw untreated material straight to river in order to ease the pressure of rainwater. The overflows may be released either directly into the environment or through storm tanks. There is also an assumption that while using this kind of release into environment, we will achieve enough dilution of pollution in overflows so that we can reduce

potential environmental impact to receiving water bodies. The Environment Agency issues environmental permits in order to regulate intermittent discharges from sewer overflows and control their environmental impact. They also monitor the frequency and duration of release by event duration monitoring. Water companies are responsible for complying with the conditions of the permits and also they are responsible for reporting if they ever breach the permits. So you mentioned there earlier that we've something like 14% I think you said of rivers in England have received this good rating. So how that sounds really bad, you know, how have we reached this point? We often hear that our Dayton Victorian sewer infrastructure is to be blamed for it. It is only in part to be blamed for the issue of poor water quality as there are actually several factors putting significant pressure on this.

infrastructure. The first factor is that our data sewer system is now coping with far higher population than it was initially designed for. For example, in the period of 10 years between 2011 and 2021, the UK population grew by 3.7 million, from 63.3 million to 67 million. considering that an average person would use approximately 140 litres of water per day for their basic needs of cooking and cleaning, baiting. This is a lot of additional water now ending up in sewer. So this is the first factor. The second factor is climate change,

where we are now experiencing extreme weather events and episodes of sudden extreme storm events in order to protect the infrastructure and prevent the wastewater from backing into our homes, treatment works are legally permitted to release untreated sewage into rivers and streams after extreme weather, such as heavy rainfall. In addition, long, dry periods can concentrate pollutants due to the lower amount of water in rivers and lakes.

And finally, our modern cities are covered in impermeable surfaces such as concrete. These prevent natural drainage of rainwater through soil and vegetation, and hence most of the urban rainwater ends up in sewers. Of course, there are other issues, such as, for example, the issue of lack of investment. Since the privatization of UK water companies in 1989, much of the profit went to stakeholders, rather than the improvement of the sewer network. there has been reported 60 billion paid by water companies in dividends to shareholders over the last 30 years. In addition, chronic underinvestment in the Environment Agency, which is now critically lacking in resources, also contributes to the poor state of rivers.

As a result of budget cuts, since 1993, the Environment Agency collected 57% fewer water quality samples. on annual basis. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. This summer, serve up the cookout classics, craft mayo and dressing.

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Reports indicate fewer row sewage spills in 2022 than in 2021, down from 370,000 to 300,000. This is mostly the result of long periods of dry weather we have experienced in 2022 rather than some specific actions by water companies. These numbers are still greatly higher than those reported in 2016, for example, but the sharp increase in these incidents can also be attributed simply to a better monitoring. And we are now able to capture this data. The number of monitor overflows has been steadily increasing over the years. For example, installing event duration monitors has helped capture this data, and the number of overflow's monitored across the network has increased from 10% in 2015

to more than 91% in 2022. The government now plans for 100% coverage of storm overflows using event duration monitors. However, what gives me hope that we are indeed moving in the right direction is not only based on the latest governmental policies, but on the fact that the water pollution is becoming a household topic, which now appears in the news almost every week. The public is more aware of this issue more than ever, and there is a general feeling of outrage for not dealing with this issue for such a long time and letting the situation go as far as it has. The topic is now becoming part of the political debates and campaigns. Not long ago, Keir Starmor, for example, the leader of the Labour Party, accused the government of turning Britain's waterways into an open sewer. In response to these pressures, only two weeks ago, water companies have publicly taken responsibility for the pollution of our waters. They have offered their apology and they pledge to 10 billion investment to cut the number of overflow incidents by half to 140,000 and invest in the improvement of infrastructure.

I believe that we are now reaching the critical point where the mounting pressure of the public politicians and the government will make the release of row sewage a bit more difficult and far more expensive. hopefully resulting in investment in long-term solutions. So we're talking about the situation in the UK here. I mean, how do we compare to other countries in Europe? Are they in a similar state? And if they're doing something better, what can we do? The European Union, like many other parts of the world, has struggled with poor river quality historically.

This was mostly due to industrial growth, rising population, discharges of wastewater straight to water bodies and increasing use of fertilizers. So similar problem to our UK problems. However, in the 1970s, EU introduced environmental policies to address this issue. The key policies include the Bating Water Directive, first introduced in 1976, followed by the Nitrid Directive and the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. So following decades of great effort, and successful implementation of these directives,

the EU has now achieved notable successes in baiting water quality, and safe baiting is now possible in waters of some capitals, such as Amsterdam, Vienna, or Copenhagen. The European Environment Agency monitors more than 22,000 European baiting sites, and the rankings of baiting sites are published annually. The ranks are described as excellent, good, sufficient, and poor, And more than 85% of the monitoring sites across EU reach excellent water quality, with countries such as Cyprus, Malta, Greece and Austria, for example,

reaching above 95% of excellent water quality sites. In 2020, which was the last year when UK was included as a member state, the quality of our water was at the bottom of European countries. This was in part caused by lack of data for that particular year, and many UK sites were not monitored at the time due to COVID restrictions. However, in previous years, in 2018 and 2019, we have reached 63 and 66% of sites being described as excellent. So we are clearly lagging behind other European countries. We surely can follow their examples of good practice. These include significant investment in infrastructure accompanied by extensive monitoring.

For example, some countries used World Bank loans to build new wastewater treatment plants and significantly extend their sewer network. Croatia, for example, built 14 new wastewater treatment plants and installed 162 kilometers of sewerage network between 2009 and 2015. On the other hand, economies more similar to ours, such as Germany, for example, implemented a comprehensive integrated approach.

For example, Germany, in their Rour area, in one of their most industrialized area, applied this type of an approach. Between 2010 and 2015, the German government funded the research project called Safe Rour, which targeted the return of baiting sites to the river. The project combined extensive wastewater treatment with monitoring water quality, modeling routes by which bacteria and viruses entered the river,

and developing an early warning system for short-term water pollution. Other examples across Europe include, for example, the installation of additional stormwater and tanks and sophisticated monitoring and reporting in Spain, nutrient inactivation in Italy, and applications of nature-based solutions in Slovakia. So what can we do to improve the situation? This is a multifaceted problem, and as such would require a complex set of actions by various stakeholders, addressing implications of monitoring, governance and enforcement on water quality. Whilst it is very unrealistic to expect that our existing network will be completely modernised in a short period,

The addition of stormwater storage tanks and rethinking of green urban areas and use of nature-based solutions would certainly ease the problem of excessive stormwater-causing overflows. As part of the government's 25-year environment plan, the Parliament approved the Environment Bill in 2021 to put a legal duty on water companies to reduce rose-switch discharges. For example, in 2021, a record 90 million pound fine against Southern water for causing close to 7,000 unpermitted sewage dischargers has been issued. This indicates that undermining environmental laws is considered to be a type of offense to be severely penalized. In addition to heavy penalties, self-monitoring and self-reporting of the spills by water companies should be reviewed. Last year's storm overflows discharge reduction plan set out ambitious targets for 2035 and 2050 for storm overflow discharging to first be significantly reduced and then fully addressed. This will require a 56 billion capital investment over 25 years as a long-term program

to reduce storm sewage discharges by 2050. Not to be underestimated is the work of activists of campaigning charities such as surface against sewage. They offer education and interactive pollution monitoring maps. The real-time data can help Bators understand the current status of water quality and make informed decisions. Citizens scientists can provide invaluable additional data in addition to the activities of the Environment Agency. Farmers can also do their own share. They can be helped by future farming schemes by informing and educating them on how to choose and apply the latest technology to their farms to minimize fertilizer runoff, reducing contamination,

and therefore reducing the impact of the overall water health. Also, formation of farm clusters enables a more structured approach to this problem. It is notable to say that the funding for the funding for. the catchman sensitive farming nearly doubled recently. So we expect more development when it comes to farming as well. And finally, we all can do our share to help water companies work better. For example, many of us contribute to the blockages of the public sewer network by flashing inappropriate materials.

Analysis of over 260,000 blockages in 2019 and 2020 indicates that they are for 40% of pollution incidents and almost 60% of these incidents are caused by wet wipes. We need to stop flushing wet wipes and single use cleaning and hygiene products containing plastics. Of course, we can also reduce our own per day use of water and realize that the clean water running from our taps is indeed a very precious commodity. So to conclude, the issue of UK's polluted waters requires a joint effort of all stakeholders. This includes the government, regulators, farmers, water companies, national highways, and citizens in adopting an integrated approach and generating a national plan to clean up our waters.

We need to keep in mind that this is a long-term challenge and it may take 20 years to resolve. Thank you for listening to this episode of Instant Genius, brought to you from the team behind BBC Science Focus. That was Dr Tanuradu, Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering at Lofbrew University. The current issue of BBC Science Focus magazine is out now. Pick up a copy wherever you buy your favourite magazines, or download a digital copy from your preferred app store. You can, of course, also find us online at ScienceFocus.com. This podcast is sponsored by name, audio and focal. The texture and emotional depth of music can be lost through digital sources or poor signal.

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