June 27th, 2022
Dirty rivers update
ELF is hugely disappointed at the Court of Appeal ruling that United Utilities can continue to discharge sewage into the Manchester Ship Canal. ELF along with a cohort of interveners, led by the Good Law Project was granted permission by the court to deduce evidence of the impacts of sewage pollution into the environment. As the law stands today, it does not allow people directly impacted to bring private law claims against the companies responsible even where the discharges are illegal. The only recourse to complaint remains through our regulators such as the Environment Agency who have been chronically underfunded over the past decade and rarely hold sewage undertakers to account.
