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03
Apr 2023
Yorkshire Water discharged sewage into River Nidd 870 times in 2022
Yorkshire Water discharged sewage into the River Nidd 870 times last year.
The Environment Agency published 2022 monitoring data on Friday from all 10 water and sewerage companies in England.
It reveals the 870 sewage discharges into the Nidd lasted for a total of 6,177 hours. Dacre sewage pumping station alone saw 87 spills and 1,014 hours of sewage discharged.
By comparison, there were 318 spills into Oak Beck and Coppice Beck, which lasted for 438 hours.
Water companies are legally allowed to release sewage through overflow pipes when the sewage system becomes too full, which can happen during increased rainfall.
In a statement, Yorkshire Water said it was working to improve the number of times sewage is discharged into rivers in the county.
A spokesperson said:
Read more:
- Andrew Jones MP ‘confident’ of achieving bathing water status for River Nidd
- Harrogate and Knaresborough MP says sewage criticism ‘ridiculous’
However, the latest figures prompted Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrats' prospective parliamentary candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough to call for a ban on sewage discharges in protected waters.
Tom Gordon
Mr Gordon also called for a ban on water company executives being paid multi-million pound bonuses.
He said:
The Stray Ferret approached Andrew Jones, Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, for comment, but did not receive a response.
Water minister Rebecca Pow said:
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