One of the informed in the Environmental Agency (EA) has broke the ranks of exposing what they describe as “deliberate and continuous coverage” for public health and environmental risks to spread wastewater in agricultural lands.
They accuse the regulator and the government of collusion with water companies for years to facilitate the dumping of waste under the guise of the soil – without supervision, transparency or testing.
“This was happening for decades,” they said. “The sludge system is still running under instructions established by water companies. When the Environment Agency funded research that revealed the real risks, they buried them.”
Sewage sludge – the secondary product of wastewater treatment – as sustainable fertilizers that return the nutrients to the soil, can also carry toxic substances from industrial and local waste. Before this practice was banned in the nineties, sludge was routinely thrown into the sea; Now it is spreading on the ground.
The rules since 1989 only require sludge test for a narrow group of heavy metals. Other substances, including medications, PFAS “Forever Chemicals”, flame inhibitors, fine plastic, anti -endocrinology, or tested.
Voluntary directives developed in 1998 by the water industry, safe sludge matrix, specifying the types of treatment that can spread and where. “The matrix is still being used,” the insiders said. “Written by water companies and simply accepted them by the Environment Agency.”
An expert in industry agreed, saying: “It is a public relationship exercise. Treatment does not remove a large group of pollutants, only pathogens.” The EA source said that the matrix was designed for protection [companies’] Access to the land bank ” – to reassure farmers and train regulations.
EA has long been known as a problem. In 2017, it cost an investigation study. The inspector said that although praising the study internally, it disappeared. “It was wiped. When the journalists asked about it, the agency said it was not present.”
Discovered Greenpeace team The study revealed through the legislation of freedom of information. She revealed flame inhibitors, dioxins and strict plastic were identified in sludge samples.
The insiders said: “EA denied its existence until the evidence was overwhelming. Then they said:” Well, it exists, but we do not give it to you. “
After the report was exposed in 2020, the Ministry of Environment, Food, Farmet and EA announced the new sludge strategy to modernize and submit the system in light of environmental permits, with promises to improve tracking, data and enforcement. But nothing was delivered.
“It was a political theater,” said the insiders. “Throw a strategy, let her sit on the shelf, say it will be reviewed next year. I hope the audience will forget.”
They added if the agency is dangerous, you will expand the list of materials that water companies must test. Instead, nothing has changed. “The regulatory authorities and the government are complicit. There is a lot of money in sludge – savings in costs and profits. Water companies have a very big impact.”
In 2024, a group of campaigns that resist Dirty launched a legal challenge to obtain stronger standards of wastewater, but lost.
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“Executive officials of the water company and shareholders receive huge payments while environmental and health risks are ignored. Worse, this indicates a deliberate arrangement to circumvent,” said Georgia Elliot Smith, Director of Fighting Dirty.
“Until the companies invest in a better treatment for treatment and infrastructure, unorganized pollutants are from urban, industrial waste and hospitals will continue to flow into sludge,” said Dr. Joanna Chloe, from the Environmental Charity Fedra.
“Sanitation without a strong organization creates a toxic cycle in the UK food and water systems. Chemicals in the soil and pollution crops with sludge, then the monitoring focuses on the rules of oscillation, said Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Contereyside Link.
“The regulation of wastewater slom is completely insufficient with monitoring that focuses only on heavy metals. The government must move quickly to restrict standards to restrict and enforce the levels of these harmful chemicals used in agriculture, as well as” polluted “mode.
“We would like to see a stronger application of the preventive principle for soil protection and ecosystems pending more studies. We know that the sludge contains PFAs, plastic materials, and other chemicals – but we do not know the influence of soil,” said Dr. David Tombins, soil and waste expert and assistant manager at the WSP Consulting Company.
“The appropriate organization – which leads to sludge pollutants to safe levels – will cost more than burning or throwing them,” said EA Insider. “So they will not do it. They will never put goals because the price is very high. The only repairs are the ban on the spread of sludge or the stopping of toxic waste that enters the sewers – and do not want Defra and EA any. They are just pretending that change is coming.”
Water UK admits that Bioresources may contain PFAS and Microplastics, but she said that there are no legal standards or methods of detection, and setting such standards is an issue for the government and the organizers. She said that the industry supports research and calls for coordinated international measures.
EA said it imposes strict controls to prevent sludge from harming soil and water, including thousands of inspections and follow -up procedures annually. Divra said it launched an independent water committee to review the organization of sludge and work with EA, farmers and companies to ensure safe use.