Life of a Chalkstream: Pooh sticks

Greetings!

As you will have read the government bowed to popular opinion on the dumping of sewage. Or have they?

This was in part thanks to some well-argued pieces in the national media and a social media campaign which included a Tweet from Feargal Sharkey that has been viewed nearly 9 million times as it cleverly conflated the hypocrisy of the government stance on sewage with its utterances in the run up to COP26.

In tandem with the Sharkey Tweet a video shot with a drone over Hampshire’s Langstone Harbour, a section of coastline that has protected conservation status, vividly showed thousands of tonnes of sewage pouring out of a 7ft diameter pipe turning the blue waters of the Solent grey, a discharge that lasted for 49 continuous hours in October.

With apologies to A.A.Milne

However, governments never like to climb down so we need to be on our guard. This all blew up as the Environment Bill made its way through Parliament which placed some obligation on water companies to better monitor sewage discharges but there was no legal duty on water companies to reduce raw sewage discharges. The rebellion of Tory MPs challenged this lack of legal duty. As a result of the U-turn Ministers will write in their own amendment to place a legal duty on water companies to cut sewage discharges.

I say we need to be on our guard for three reasons. Firstly, the word cut. How will that be defined? What will be the benchmarks? Frankly, the volume of sewage discharges is already unacceptably high so even if they are cut in half, which I’m sure the water companies, government and regulators would claim as a massive win, they will still be unacceptably high. Secondly, who will monitor and measure the cut? We all know the abysmal record of the Environment Agency in this respect.

Thirdly, and probably the nub of this is cost. Pre-U-turn, when Government whips were trying to quell the rebellion, cost was cited as the reason why no legal duty should be placed upon water companies. However, it is hard to know where we are when it comes to the question of cost. The Storm Overflow Taskforce, made up of the water industry and our friends Ofwat and the Environment Agency, put the cost in range £3.9bn to £62.7bn. Yes, really that is no typo. That is a range of 1,607%. I think the last time I saw a percentage on that scale was in the small print of a payday loan advert.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any other cost estimates so let us play around with what we have. In terms of the consumer, the low end of that £3.9bn bill spread over ten years would mean an extra £14 on each household water bill each year. At the high end that £62.7bn translates to £221. The average annual water bill is currently around £450. Or looked at another way government has been more than ready to add green levies on our electricity bills which currently stand at 23%. If we did the same with water that would produce roughly £30bn over 10 years, so in the midrange of the Storm Overflow Taskforce estimate.

Alternatively, and probably more politically palatable for some, we could go after the profits of the water companies. Since privatisation shareholder dividends have been in aggregate £57bn, so roughly £2bn a year. Say we cut the dividends in half that could be a billion a year towards sewage infrastructure, but still a good way short of the mid-point of £3bn a year.

So, whichever way you cut it, the solving of our sewage problem is going to fall on the bill payer. We’ve won the emotional argument. Now we need to win the fiscal one.

Click here to watch the video

How fishing guides get married

We had a wedding in our guide community back in September when Steve Dowling married long-time partner Michele. Naturally, the stag do was a fishing day but even by guide standards the theme of the wedding was unusual: movie or TV characters.

I thought it might be fun to share the pictures of the day which took place in Michelmersh Barns which overlooks the Test valley between Stockbridge and Romsey. For Steve it bought back memories (and maybe was inspired by) his sole foray into the film business when, back in the 1980’s, he was an extra in the filming of Wurzel Gummidge’s wedding at the Barns, played by ex-Doctor Who John Pertwee.

Steve & Michele

Needless to say, Steve and Michele’s honeymoon involved water – a trip to the Lake District where Steve sneaked in a day on the Eden with Paul Proctor whilst Michele rode some heavy horses.

We wish Steve and Michele every happiness in their new life together.

Is the EA worth the cost of the fishing licence?

I don’t want to prejudice the outcome of our next debate but I hope there is only one conclusion when Charles and I will be asking you the question: Is the Environment Agency worth the cost of a fishing licence?

I’m sure our debate will feature sewage, coming as it does just a few days after the debate in the House of Commons (15/November) on discharges prompted by the petition that garnered 111,434 signatures. However, I hope we’ll range far and wide over the EA remit including the proposal to limit stocked trout to a maximum of 2lbs.

We’ll be coming to you on Zoom from The Mill at 6pm on Monday 22/November. If you wish to register for this and future debates click here and I’ll also include the login details in the next Newsletter the Friday prior (19/November).

River plates

I was sent this rather fun photo from one of my readers in California. I have struggled to think of the perfect fly for numberplate success. Has anyone else a photo of a weird river finds?