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Photo Essay: https://bit.ly/3drbjob
By Kate Holton and Dialon Martinez
Lyme Bay, England, – Under the sad seas away from southern England, 400 million muscles provoked ropes, which are hanging from dotted bots in an area of the country’s largest airport -size.
About 5 km from the coast at its nearest point, Europe’s largest offshore Musail was built by the Holmayard family in Lime Bay, where he believed that it would be free from millions of gallons sewage in Britain’s water every year.
But even these distant offshore, harmful bacteria such as E.Coli can pollute water, can block exports to continental Europe for weeks and damage the possibilities of business producing permanent food.
Sales manager Sarah Holmayard said during the farm visit, “It is criminal that they are allowed to dump what they dump in the sea and go away with it.” “It is affecting all types of businesses including us.”
While Britain’s shellfish industry is small, the problems faced by Holmayards underlines that failure with the most basic services in British society such as water and sewage can damage the broader economy.
Reuters interview with 20 people and data analysis shows how polluted water also killed tourism and delayed construction projects, working as a drawing on the economy when the new labor government is trying to start development.
According to the independence of the information request, from October 2024 to October 2024, for five years, the Environment Agency intervened on 60 occasions, objecting to plan applications due to the pressures on the local sewerage system.
Clean water campaigners have started protesting against planning applications, assuming that the government is more likely to fix the sewage system than the current efforts that focus on the loss caused by biodiversity.
“Money talks,” Ash Smith said in a campaign group Windarsh against sewage pollution. Standing for the knee in a gray, untreated sewage in a local Brook in Oxfordshire, he explained how they were objecting to the construction of the house how the water system broke the country’s infrastructure more widely.
Sewage pumping in rivers and seas has become a major scam in Britain. Private water companies have been accused of prioritizing dividends on investment and dumping sewage in waterways when a sick infrastructure cannot withstand.
Pollution has stopped wild water swimmers, angry surfers, warned of toxic blue-green algal bloom in lakes and formed an army of people who have become experts of water quality after seeing changes in waterways.
In England, water companies discharged sewage for 3.6 million hours in 2023, polluting streams, rivers and beaches, dumped them with sanitary products and condoms, damaging ecosystems and houses, and intimidated tourists.
Sewage spills
British sewer mostly combine rainwater with waste water. During extraordinary rains, water companies can “spread” in the waterway to prevent sewers from overwhelming. But many have been fined for issuing sewage regularly.
South West Water, which provides water and sewerage services in the Devon County by Holmayard’s form, discharged sewage for 530,737 hours in 2023 – 83% jumping on 2022 It is one of the worst artists in England, environmental agency data show.
South West Water said it was looking for ways to improve the quality of water in Lime Bay.
“We are making sure that each designated shellfish water in the region will meet the government’s target with a target of less than 10-10 years before the limit-because we plan almost double investment from 2025–30 to 2.5 billion pounds.”
When John Holmayard and his wife Nikki started planning their muscle farms, they had a lot.
After Scotland had a muscle cultivated in cold water for years, he decided to find a site with warm water, the correct sea depth and abundance of nutrients. They believed that they would help the muscles grow faster. It had to be far away to avoid runoff, but with some protection to limit the ocean’s cheerful.
They settled on Lime Bay after visiting similar sites around Britain, Europe, China and New Zealand and spent seven years in getting plan and regulatory approval – without knowing whether their hump will pay.
After eleven years, the farm produces about 3,000 tonnes of muscles a year and Holmards are expected to reach 10,000 to 12,000 tonnes after completion.
John Holmayard, who runs a business with Nikki, his daughter Sara and son George, said he never expected sewage to impress his farm: “But it doesn’t work like that.”
For shellfish producers, dumped sewage have been toxic.
Before the Britain left the European Union, muscles and oyster could be sent to the continent before purification. Post Braxit, the European Union only accepts those with pure goods or clean British water, rated class A.
That change has destroyed the cultivation of Muslims in North Wales on the West Coast of Britain. The region once produced bulk of UK exports in Europe, but now rarely sells the continent to the continent due to lack of poor water and wholesale purification facilities in the country.
The Great Britain’s Shellfish Association says that if the sea cleaner had been doubled, the British exports would have doubled.
James Green, who harves and sells oyster in a whitestable in a city in South -East England, famous for Roman time, he used to send about half of his yield to markets such as Hong Kong and Europe, but brakes and water quality issues means that he now only sells purity.
His water supplier, southern water was fined 90 million pounds to dump sewage in 2015 in five years in 2021, disrupting crops and exports. They did not get any compensation and say that it is difficult to wait for improvement.
“I got a business,” he said. “Can you wait for change in five, six, seven years time?”
To protect its oyster, E. Koli, Green Monitor for Salmonella and Norovirus, and track rain and sewer overflows to assess risks before harvesting.
Southern water said it was investing heavy to ensure the continuous high quality of the shellfish beds around its coast.
“There was no evidence of impact on the shellfish bed in the 2021 court case about the incidents between 2010 and 2015, which are affected by many factors,” said this.
Inspired to disappoint
Holmayards say his muscles in the Netherlands e. Koli is tested on almost daily basis – and they are always within the limits for class -e -designation.
But e. The high number of colliers is sometimes described in similar monthly tests by British authorities, which nominate some parts of Form Class B.
In the British system, negative readings may have different consequences for future crops. For Holmayards, it stopped them from exporting muscles from that part of the farm for several weeks – and the next year also nominated the same area of Class B.
The family says that they find it baffling, as the bacteria coming from the shore should be heavy thin by the time of reaching the farm – and because the British readings do not tally tally with more frequent Dutch tests.
John said he was unable to raise fresh capital since Brexit due to the risk of export ban.
The British body responsible for classifying the Food Standards Agency, Shellfish Harvesting areas said that it had tried to be flexible, but it was to protect public health and the classification would only improve with better water.
As Sara and George submerged the hunter Starfish from the muscles, he explained how an annual survey showed the farm that the farm had given rise to the abundance of the species, such as crab and lobster.
Their blue muscles, known for their rich, sweet taste, are sold as a premium product in Europe. Despite the restrictions, Holmayard still exports 95% of muscles to the European Union, with rests sold in Britain.
Tourism owners say that it is high quality, locally produced food that they need to promote potential holidays.
Alastair Handside, president of the South West Tourism Alliance, said, while tourism was mainly affected by weather and cost, sewage talk damaged the appeal of several places.
“It inspires you to disappoint,” he said.
Toxic output
Sewage and garbage vision on the beaches and rivers have also inspired thousands of people to protest.
Sally Burt-Jones were one of the founders of SOS Whitstable, who were part of a network of groups that protest, test local water and test the campaign for legislative changes.
He said that he is the most proud of his campaign work. “We care about the community and the sea,” he said. “We can make changes when we meet together.”
John Reve, a surfers, against the sewage representative in the northeast seaside city of Saltburn, have worked with local authorities and studied geology that to control rain water to understand that storms become heavy due to climate change.
“We are making a difference over time,” he said.
The water industry says that it has invested heavy in the infrastructure since privatization in 1989, but population growth and climate change have put new pressure at a time when it is said that the gradual governments – and the regulator of the regulator focus on keeping the customer bills low.
Owat said that water companies in England and Wales had paid 53 billion pounds in dividends since privatization – and in 2024 there was a collective net loan of 69.5 billion.
It has proposed to increase 36% before inflation in the next five years to fund the infrastructure upgradation and has gained new powers to add dividends for performance. The government is also reviewing the region.
An OFwat spokesperson said the customer wants change: “We need to see a change in the culture and performance of the companies. We will monitor and hold the account.”
Failures around the sewage have also built, objecting to planning applications with the environment agency when it thinks that the existing systems will not face.
Objections for everything from housing to retail sites, offices, schools, a science business park and holiday center are usually away from ways to reduce the effect.
But objections combine time, cost and complexity in the construction of projects, a serious challenge for the government as it wants to trigger the bounce in the construction of housing and infrastructure.
Water pollution has also damaged biodiversity.
The Atlantic salmon stock, which is in the breeding field of freshwater in the UK, has hit the new climb. The rod catches declared in 2023 were the worst since the record started in 1988.
The environment agency attributed the fall for pollution and sediment – just sought to escape from Holmard.
Sara said that it was being repeated somewhere else for business. “But if you have found issues the same as not being able to export due to water quality, then it is not just going to work.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without amending the text.
