A landmark Supreme Court docket 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 wherein United Utilities stated 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 Trade Act, which appeared to specify that solely regulators can search this sort of motion.1
As not-for-profit Good Regulation Venture defined, the Environmental Regulation Basis (ELF), backed by Good Regulation Venture and represented by Hausfeld, introduced an intervention within the listening to.2
Via 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 Court docket and Court docket of Attraction in favour of United Utilities, who introduced authorized motion in opposition to the Manchester Ship Canal Firm in 2018.
Good Regulation Venture stated 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 Surroundings 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 Venture’s interim head of authorized, Jennine Walker, stated:
“This can be a sensational victory and an actual enhance to the clear up of our rivers, waterways and seas. It offers folks 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 folks and companies to make use of the courts to problem industrial-scale polluters like United Utilities, who’ve put earnings and the shareholder curiosity over defending our surroundings”.
Environmental Regulation Basis co-director and casework supervisor, Emma Montlake, stated:
“This was a ‘monster case’ as characterised by lead Counsel for the Manchester Ship Canal. Enormously advanced, the result has the potential to be a recreation changer for communities up and down the land.
“Our water environments have been often polluted with untreated sewage, water biodiversity denuded and degraded with impunity by personal water firms. A nationwide scandal doesn’t come near describing what we now have put up with. This can be a glad day for environmental justice, not only for the general public, however for nature.”
Notes
[1] https://www.ft.com/content material/9e7e840e-6d16-47ee-8ac1-9586a3de1495
[2] “Water firms might face raft of authorized challenges after landmark sewage ruling”. From Good Regulation Venture press workplace, Tuesday 2 July 2024.
