The Environment Agency reports that an operator of three illegal waste sites near Harleston has been fined £20,000, given a five-year criminal behaviour order, and received a suspended custodial sentence after persistent waste offences over several months. The case involved dumping, burying and burning waste at Withersdale Hall without the required environmental permits, with the court ordering the waste to be removed within 12 months.
The Environment Agency reports that England remains in drought across much of the country, with water companies urged to maintain leakage reduction and demand management through autumn and winter. New modelling suggests above-average rainfall will be needed over the next seven months to fully end drought conditions by April 2027 in all areas.
The Environment Agency has published a public notice for an environmental permit application submitted by Andy Davies for Woodcote, Pond Lane, Farnham, GU10 2PZ. The notice explains that the application is open to public consultation in relation to activities such as water discharge, groundwater activities, and certain combustion plant or generator uses.
The Environment Agency has updated guidance on the U1 waste exemption, which allows certain suitable waste materials to be used in construction, landscaping, drainage works and maintenance of linear networks. The guidance sets out activity-specific tonnage limits, contamination restrictions, validity periods and the need to comply with other permissions such as flood risk permits and planning consent.
The Environment Agency has updated guidance on the information required for noise impact assessments that use computer modelling or spreadsheet calculations. The guidance sets out detailed submission requirements for site, plant, building, barrier, terrain and receptor data, and notes that incomplete applications may be delayed.
United Utilities Water Limited has been fined after pleading guilty to five environmental permit offences linked to a major sewage spill along the Fylde Coast in Lancashire. The incident led to bathing restrictions, temporary shellfish bed closures and wider disruption to communities and businesses, including impacts on tourism in Blackpool and St Annes.
The Environment Agency has announced two further arrests in its ongoing investigation into large-scale illegal waste dumping at a site in Kidlington, bringing the total number of arrests to six. The site was previously closed by court order and has since been fully cleaned, with more than 22,000 tonnes of waste removed.
The Environment Agency has updated its guidance on CEN and ISO monitoring methods for discharges to water, including the addition of new standards for several pollutants and the replacement of the PFOS/PFOA standard with one for PFAS. The document notes that some updated methods, including those for biochemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen, supersede previous versions.
The Environment Agency has issued Regulatory Position Statement RPS 376 on the storage of waste PFOA-containing firefighting foams and related decontamination and replacement wastes. It explains when the Agency will not normally take enforcement action if these wastes are stored longer than permitted under non-waste framework directive exemptions, provided the stated conditions are met.
