As South West Water defends a court action from a Devon swimmer, it also claims it has no legal duty to keep waters clean

South West Water is claiming it has no legal obligation to keep rivers and seawater clean of sewage in its defence against a Devon swimmer who is taking the water company to court.

Jo Bateman, who attempts to swim every day off the coast of Exmouth, is taking legal action against South West Water, claiming its frequent sewage discharges into the sea have taken away her legal right to a public “amenity”.

However, in its defence to Ms Bateman’s claim, seen by i, the water firm states no one has a legal right to swim in the sea.

  • OfficerBribeEnglish
    432·
    7 months ago

    While it obviously seems ridiculous, waste water must go somewhere. Last part of the article:

    However, a solicitor familiar with swimming rights suggests the law is not as clear as campaigners suggest.

    Nathan Willmott, a partner at law firm Ashurst, said: “The statutory regime governing water companies has been held by the courts to cancel out certain common law rights that water users would otherwise have against water companies for allowing sewage discharge into the water and making it unsafe to swim in.”

    But he suggested that if South West Water were to be found guilty of breaching the regulations on when sewage can been spilled into the sea, then its immunity from prosecution may not apply.

    The tone of their response could have been better though.

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      7 months ago

      Yeah, you clean it, process the extracted waste and recycle the water… At least that’s what normal people expect to happen. Allowing a company to externalize their waste to be “the worlds” problem is not acceptable. They should have to pay for the clean up.

      This would require the water company to properly charge their customers based on how filthy they make the water. Normal household vs chemical giant for example.

      • OfficerBribeEnglish
        3·
        7 months ago

        Did a bit of a reading how it works locally around me and turns out there indeed is a treatment process involving bacteries that eat the bad stuff and then you get treated water + sludge. Sludge is re-used for bunch of stuff and water is pumped back at sea. Never really thought how it all works, in my mind it just got dumped somewhere.

        • RubberDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          7 months ago

          Yeah it’s pretty high tech and corrosive business. Companies should clean it properly, the oceans feed us and give us oxygen so no dumping raw sewage