Rob Edwards

Scotland’s waters to stay polluted for many years

from Sunday Herald, 07 June 2009

Delays in cleaning up Scotland’s polluted rivers, lochs and coastlines will breach European law, leaving vast reaches of water contaminated for many years.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that over 800 stretches of water covering more than 11,000 square kilometres will still be classified bad, poor or moderate in 2015 under official plans to improve the nation’s water quality.

Scotland is aiming so low that it has dropped down the league of European countries, according to a new international ranking. Places in England and Germany are now doing better, environmentalists say.

At the moment more than third of Scotland’s waterways are officially rated as polluted or ecologically damaged. This is condemned as a “national disgrace” by one of the country’s most powerful conservation groups, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Revealed: Scottish Water condemns thousands to pongs and pollution

Exclusive, 3 June 2009

Thousands of people in Glasgow are being condemned to years of pungent pongs and pollution because because of a secret decision by Scottish Water to abandon investment in a dilapidated and overloaded sewage works.

Communities across Scotland are also suffering from smells and overflows at ageing or inadequate sewage works deprived of much-needed money. There have been a series of problems in Edinburgh, Inverness, Fife and Lanarkshire, while Scottish Water has frequently being prosecuted for pollution.

In Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre the water company has been humiliated by the consumer watchdog, Waterwatch Scotland. It has been ordered to apologise for repeatedly mismanaging sewage operations and “systematically trying to rubbish” the complaints of local people.

Water under threat from private companies

from Sunday Herald, 22 March 2009

The multinational water industry has been accused of running a covert campaign to privatise water in Scotland and around the world, threatening rising costs and more pollution.

Researchers at Strathclyde University allege that there has been a “concerted, clever and tacit” attempt by businesses, legislators and regulators to turn Scottish Water into a private company “in all but name”. Internationally “aggressive privatisation” is making the world water crisis worse, they say.

Today is water’s big day. It has been designated by the United Nations as World Water Day, and it sees the end of deliberations at the 156-nation World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey - where the stress has been on the advantages of working with the private sector.

But for many experts, trade unionists and campaigners, it is the encroaching influence of water corporations that is the problem. They fear that public benefits may lose out to private profits.

Warning over wildlife risk from wave and tidal power

from Sunday Herald, 25 January 2009

Ministers’ plans for a major expansion of renewable energy into the seas around Scotland could threaten wildlife, according to the government’s nature conservation advisers.

In a report due out tomorrow, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) will highlight the risk of seabirds, seals, whales and sharks being killed by collisions with wave or tidal turbines.

The animals may have to be deliberately scared away by noise, SNH will suggest. Or renewable energy plants may have to be temporarily shut down, or removed altogether.

The sewage that sloshes over Scotland's beaches

from Sunday Herald, 14 September 2008

For the second year running beaches across Scotland have been badly polluted by sewage in breach of safety limits, endangering the health of paddlers, swimmers and surfers.

Monitoring results released today by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) reveal that seven designated bathing waters have again failed to meet 30-year-old legal standards. Another six undesignated beaches also failed to make the grade.

A further 20 designated bathing waters narrowly missed breaching the limits but nevertheless recorded high levels of pollution. Overall this summer was as least as bad as last year, which was the worst for six years.

The beaches being polluted with sewage this summer

from Sunday Herald, 20 July 2008

Beaches across Scotland are being contaminated with sewage this summer in breach of 30-year-old safety limits, threatening bathers with illness and infections.

One bathing water - Cruden Bay near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire - has already failed to meet the legal standard for 2008. Ten other beaches have been given a “yellow card” by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).

They include two newly designated bathing waters: Rosemarkie near Fortrose in Highland and Seafield at Kirkcaldy in Fife. In both cases Sepa has linked the pollution to problems at nearby sewage plants, though this has been disputed by their operator, Scottish Water.

Huge gaps exposed in Scotland's flood warning system

from Sunday Herald, 29 June 2008

People living in half of Scotland could miss out on vital flood warnings because of huge gaps in the country’s network of weather radars.

Some of the areas most vulnerable to flooding around the Moray Firth and in Dumfries and Galloway are not covered, putting their populations in danger from flash floods and sudden storms.

But now MSPs are calling for urgent action to plug the gaps, and bring the flood warning system up to scratch. They point out that radar coverage in Scotland is much poorer than in England and Wales.

Trouble ahead on breaches of European laws

from Sunday Herald, 06 April 2008

Ministers are preparing to face censure over alleged breaches of European laws meant to protect whales and birds of prey and to prevent pollution, an internal report obtained by the Sunday Herald reveals.

The Scottish government is also anticipating “potential problems” with legal action from the European Commission (EC) over the controversial wind farm proposed for the Isle of Lewis, fisheries policy, environmental assessments and sewage leakages in Campbeltown.

An up-to-date database of all the active legal disputes between the Scottish government and the EC has been released under freedom of information legislation. Details of the so-called “infraction cases” were kept secret until the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, ordered that to end last December.

What next for Scotland's water industry?

a talk to a Holyrood conference 'Turning the tide: the future of Scotland's water’, Edinburgh, 03 March 2008

First I would like to say something about bottled water. What is the point of it? It's hugely wasteful of resources, ludicrously expensive, and in most cases tastes no different from the water that comes out of the tap. What is the point of paying through the nose for the stuff? Why do people do it? The clue - someone pointed out to me the other day - is in the name of one of the main brands of bottled water - Evian. Look what happens if you spell the word backwards - Evian becomes naive. Maybe that's what the purchasers of bottled water are.

Thank you for inviting me to speak. It is an unusual privilege for a journalist to be asked to comment on current affairs rather than to report other people's comments, which is what I spend most of my time doing. It's daunting and, some might say, something of a cheek for a journalist to be pontificating about the future of Scotland's water, especially as many in the audience will know more than I do. Most of what I do is to write stories about the times that things that go wrong, ignoring the many more frequent times when things go right.

Ministers and Scottish Water face legal action over sewage spills

from Sunday Herald, 10 February 2008

Scottish ministers and Scottish Water are both in the dock over a new £15 million waste plant that spills sewage into a marina up to a thousand times a year.

Ministers are facing legal action from the European Commission, while Scottish Water has been reported to the procurator fiscal by the government watchdog, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), for frequently breaching pollution rules.

If Scottish Water is convicted, it will be the 17th time it has been found guilty of a sewage pollution offence since November 2004. According to environmental groups, the public agency is “Scotland’s most frequently prosecuted environmental criminal”.

Scottish seas: abused, ignored and in need of a law

from Holyrood Magazine, 28 January 2007

Scotland is defined by the sea. The crashing waves, the ragged cliffs, the glistening sands encircle the nation’s history, feed its culture, and help shape its psychology.

With a shoreline stretching some 11,000 kilometres, hundreds of islands scattered over vast reaches of ocean and 70% of the population living within ten kilometres of the coast, the sea could hardly be more vital. Yet, bizarrely, it has been virtually ignored by governments.

Activities on land have been planned, managed and controlled for centuries, but the sea has been left to look after itself. It has been dredged for huge quantities of fish, exploited for oil and gas and used as a toxic dumping ground, but it has never been the subject of a strategic plan by ministers.

Scotland accused of 65 breaches of European laws

from Sunday Herald, 16 December 2007

Scotland has been accused by the European Union (EU) of 65 violations of laws meant to prevent pollution, protect wildlife and control waste, according to a secret government database released to the Sunday Herald.

The number of alleged breaches of European legal directives over the past six years is twice as high as previously admitted, prompting accusations yesterday that Scotland's record was "shocking" and had been "covered up".

The range of environmental crimes investigated by the EU is very broad. They include breaking rules on overfishing, hazardous waste, water pollution, sewage, radiation protection, plant imports, pesticides, birds of prey and pigs.

Scotland's beaches the dirtiest for six years

from Sunday Herald, 16 September 2007

Scotland's beaches have this summer suffered the worst sewage pollution in six years, according to figures released today by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

Seven officially designated bathing waters have failed the basic safety limits, along with seven other popular beaches. The failure rate is the highest since 2001, as is the average level of faecal contamination.

And there is worse to come. Predictions by SEPA suggest that a further nine bathing waters will breach tough new European standards due to be introduced over the next few years.

Scottish beaches breach sewage safety limits

from Sunday Herald, 22 July 2007

Beaches across Scotland are being contaminated with sewage this summer in breach of legal safety limits, endangering the health of swimmers, surfers and children splashing around in the sea.

Last year ministers claimed that for the first time all the country's official bathing waters met the European Union's 30-year-old sewage limits. But this year, barely halfway through the bathing season, two beaches have already failed the limits, and another nine are at risk of failing.

Cutback in polluted beach monitoring

from Sunday Herald, 20 May 2007

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has come under fire from environmentalists for cutting back on monitoring for sewage pollution on beaches.

An analysis by the Sunday Herald has uncovered a 35% decline in sampling over the last five years, with nearly 800 fewer bathing water samples being tested in 2006 than in 2002.

Taxpayers landed with bill for illegal pollution

from Sunday Herald, 06 May 2007

Taxpayers could be lumbered with a large legal bill because Scotland's environment watchdog is allowing over 200,000 tonnes of sewage sludge to be illegally burnt in a polluting power station.

A secret Scottish Executive memo, leaked to the Sunday Herald, reveals that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has made a deal which enables sludge to be incinerated at Longannet power station for four years in breach of European law.

Forth polluted by major sewage spill

from Sunday Herald, 22 April 2007

The public were warned yesterday to avoid contact with water in the Firth of Forth following a major spill at one of Scotland’s biggest sewage works.

The accident happened because of a mechanical breakdown at Seafield sewage works in Leith on Friday afternoon. A large pump failure has led to most of Edinburgh's sewage being dumped into the Forth for more than 24 hours.

More pollution on beaches despite Executive claims

from Sunday Herald, 17 September 2006

The pollution of Scotland's beaches by sewage this summer was worse than last year, according to new figures from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).

This contradicts widely-publicised claims by the Scottish Executive yesterday that bathing waters had "never been cleaner", and prompted accusations that ministers had been "massaging" statistics to get good headlines.

Sanctions after River Tay polluted

from Sunday Herald, 13 August 2006

ONE of Scotland’s great rivers is being polluted with sewage because illegal discharges from a government-backed frozen food company are swamping a waste water treatment plant.

Bathers set to enjoy sun, sea and sewage

from Sunday Herald, 23 July 2006

It's summer, the sun is shining, and there's sewage on our shores again. Two Scottish beaches look like they have already failed the faecal safety limits for this year, and five more have recorded excess levels of pollution.