Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will undertake an environmental impact assessment of Southern Water’s decision to respond to increased rainfall by improving surface water drainage.

The Environment Agency continues to liaise with Southern Water to implement Pathfinder projects in Whitstable, Margate and Deal, in order to reduce surface water inputs to Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) during heavy rainfall. These catchments are affected by hydraulic overload from groundwater infiltration into sewers, leading to the WWTW becoming overloaded and therefore subject to additional sewage spills to the environment. Measures taken by the Pathfinder project to slow rainfall ingress into groundwater have already led to reductions in spill numbers and works are continuing to reduce total spill numbers further. The Environment Agency also inputs to Drainage and Waste Water Management Plans to ensure future integrated planning is in place.