A landmark Supreme Courtroom judgment on 2 July might open up new authorized avenues for water firms to be sued for sewage dumping incidents.
The ruling, described as a “sensational victory” by campaigners, follows a listening to in March 2023 during which United Utilities mentioned the canal’s homeowners, the Manchester Ship Canal Firm, weren’t entitled to hunt damages for the discharge of untreated water into its extent, citing the 1991 Water Business Act, which appeared to specify that solely regulators can search this sort of motion.1
As not-for-profit Good Law Project defined, the Environmental Regulation Basis (ELF), backed by Good Regulation Undertaking and represented by Hausfeld, introduced an intervention within the listening to.2
By means of ELF’s intervention it was demonstrated that sewage air pollution was a big downside for river and marine communities throughout the nation and never simply the Manchester Ship Canal. The judgment units a big precedent that has implications far past the Manchester Ship Canal.
The judgment overturned two earlier rulings within the Excessive Courtroom and Courtroom of Enchantment in favour of United Utilities, who introduced authorized motion in opposition to the Manchester Ship Canal Firm in 2018.
Good Regulation Undertaking mentioned these earlier rulings shielded United Utilities and different water firms in opposition to authorized challenges from people and companies affected by sewage discharges.
Figures printed by the Atmosphere Company present that United Utilities has been one of many worst offending water firm for sewage dumping since 2020. Final 12 months the corporate discharged untreated sewage 97,500 occasions for a length of over 650,000 hours.
Good Regulation Undertaking’s interim head of authorized, Jennine Walker, mentioned:
“It is a sensational victory and an actual increase to the clear up of our rivers, waterways and seas. It offers individuals stronger authorized instruments to show the tide on the sewage scandal and maintain water firms to account, after our toothless and underfunded regulators have failed to take action.
“We hope this landmark ruling empowers people and businesses to use the courts to challenge industrial-scale polluters like United Utilities, who have put profits and the shareholder interest over protecting our environment”.
Environmental Regulation Basis co-director and casework supervisor, Emma Montlake, mentioned:
“This was a ‘monster case’ as characterised by lead Counsel for the Manchester Ship Canal. Enormously complicated, the end result has the potential to be a recreation changer for communities up and down the land.
“Our water environments have been regularly polluted with untreated sewage, water biodiversity denuded and degraded with impunity by private water companies. A national scandal doesn’t come close to describing what we have put up with. This is a glad day for environmental justice, not just for the public, but for nature.”
Notes
(1) https://www.ft.com/content/9e7e840e-6d16-47ee-8ac1-9586a3de1495
(2) “Water companies could face raft of legal challenges after landmark sewage ruling”. From Good Regulation Undertaking press workplace, Tuesday 2 July 2024.
