This story is really poor and badly reported, as it doesn’t explain WHY the Environmental Protection Act 1990 has these fines in place and why what this women did was wrong. Instead it’s a clickbait story that implies the woman is a victim.
In the UK (and like many places) there are 2 systems of water drainage in urban areas - the surface water drainage (which is for rainwater) and the sewage system (which is dirty and drains toilets, home sinks, etc).
The surface water drainage runs eventually into fresh water such as lakes, rivers, and the sea, untreated. So if you pour coffee down a rain drain, it is contaminating the fresh water. It may seem ridiculous to fine someone for the dregs of one coffee, but if everyone were putting waste water in the rainwater drains / gutters it would have a detrimental impact on the ecosystem. It’s already a huge problem as people DO put contaminated water into these drains, probably due to widespread ignorance.
The sewage system is for contaminated waste; that water is collected and treated and either reused for drinking water or then released back into the fresh water system. Finish your coffee OR take it with you to a place where you can dispose of it into the sewage system.
She needs to pay her fine, educate herself and understand she is not a victim here. She did something wrong.
It’s already a huge problem as people DO put contaminated water into these drains, probably due to widespread ignorance.
You talk of ecosystems, but we’re talking about a beverage made entirely of natural biodegradable ingredients. It’s bean water. You may as well complain about the runoff coming out of a nature preserve.
What she did was right. It was safe. Your slippery slope would apply to bulk dumping or actually dangerous liquids. In reality, roads and roofs are covered with all kinds of dirt and things, all of which gets washed into the storm sewer every time it rains. But here you are pretending a quarter cup of coffee could possibly be problematic.
So all the diesel runoff from leaky lorries, tractors, badly maintained vehicles etc and, whatever else that gets spilt on the roads goes into our waterways untreated?
Plus Thames water has been releasing raw sewage into our waterways.
The fact that that happens is not a reason to allow free dumping into the storm drains though. There’s not a ready solution for motor oil drips that happen to leak from a truck. There is a solution to homeowners wanting to dispose of 4 quarts of oil after an oil change.
The dumping laws make sense, this was just a stupid application of them.
In the UK (and like many places) there are 2 systems of water drainage
Not necessarily, older systems tend to be combined systems where sewage and rainwater go down the same pipes and are treated before going into the river. London (where this story takes place) is like this as the system was built in the 1800s when they didn’t care about treating water before it went into the Thames. This becomes a problem when it rains too much and it overwhelms the treatment system so they just dump untreated sewage into the Thames like the good old days.
Then again maybe they’re building a parallel separated system to try and reduce the load during heavy rains. Ie. We were rebuilding this road anyway, might as well connect it to a new storm water drainage system instead of sending it to the old Victorian one, and that’s why they don’t want people dumping.
Your main point is correct for most people living in places that were developed in the 1920s or later, don’t dump shit in the storm drains.
This story is really poor and badly reported, as it doesn’t explain WHY the Environmental Protection Act 1990 has these fines in place and why what this women did was wrong. Instead it’s a clickbait story that implies the woman is a victim.
That has already been explained in the article. 👀
Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 makes it an offence to deposit or dispose of waste in a way likely to pollute land or water, including pouring liquids into street drains.
This story is really poor and badly reported, as it doesn’t explain WHY the Environmental Protection Act 1990 has these fines in place and why what this women did was wrong. Instead it’s a clickbait story that implies the woman is a victim.
In the UK (and like many places) there are 2 systems of water drainage in urban areas - the surface water drainage (which is for rainwater) and the sewage system (which is dirty and drains toilets, home sinks, etc).
The surface water drainage runs eventually into fresh water such as lakes, rivers, and the sea, untreated. So if you pour coffee down a rain drain, it is contaminating the fresh water. It may seem ridiculous to fine someone for the dregs of one coffee, but if everyone were putting waste water in the rainwater drains / gutters it would have a detrimental impact on the ecosystem. It’s already a huge problem as people DO put contaminated water into these drains, probably due to widespread ignorance.
The sewage system is for contaminated waste; that water is collected and treated and either reused for drinking water or then released back into the fresh water system. Finish your coffee OR take it with you to a place where you can dispose of it into the sewage system.
She needs to pay her fine, educate herself and understand she is not a victim here. She did something wrong.
You talk of ecosystems, but we’re talking about a beverage made entirely of natural biodegradable ingredients. It’s bean water. You may as well complain about the runoff coming out of a nature preserve.
What she did was right. It was safe. Your slippery slope would apply to bulk dumping or actually dangerous liquids. In reality, roads and roofs are covered with all kinds of dirt and things, all of which gets washed into the storm sewer every time it rains. But here you are pretending a quarter cup of coffee could possibly be problematic.
So all the diesel runoff from leaky lorries, tractors, badly maintained vehicles etc and, whatever else that gets spilt on the roads goes into our waterways untreated?
Plus Thames water has been releasing raw sewage into our waterways.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-67357566
The fact that that happens is not a reason to allow free dumping into the storm drains though. There’s not a ready solution for motor oil drips that happen to leak from a truck. There is a solution to homeowners wanting to dispose of 4 quarts of oil after an oil change.
The dumping laws make sense, this was just a stupid application of them.
The solution was this…
Thanks for explaining
Not necessarily, older systems tend to be combined systems where sewage and rainwater go down the same pipes and are treated before going into the river. London (where this story takes place) is like this as the system was built in the 1800s when they didn’t care about treating water before it went into the Thames. This becomes a problem when it rains too much and it overwhelms the treatment system so they just dump untreated sewage into the Thames like the good old days.
Then again maybe they’re building a parallel separated system to try and reduce the load during heavy rains. Ie. We were rebuilding this road anyway, might as well connect it to a new storm water drainage system instead of sending it to the old Victorian one, and that’s why they don’t want people dumping.
Your main point is correct for most people living in places that were developed in the 1920s or later, don’t dump shit in the storm drains.
That has already been explained in the article. 👀