As South West Water defends a court action from a Devon swimmer, it also claims it has no legal duty to keep waters clean

South West Water is claiming it has no legal obligation to keep rivers and seawater clean of sewage in its defence against a Devon swimmer who is taking the water company to court.

Jo Bateman, who attempts to swim every day off the coast of Exmouth, is taking legal action against South West Water, claiming its frequent sewage discharges into the sea have taken away her legal right to a public “amenity”.

However, in its defence to Ms Bateman’s claim, seen by i, the water firm states no one has a legal right to swim in the sea.

  • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    57·
    8 months ago

    If it’s fine to dump whatever they want into the sea and rivers, what’s to stop someone dumping a large amount of concrete directly over their vents? If it happens to fill and block their pipes, that’s their problem.

    • thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      29·
      8 months ago

      “sorry but due to increased vandalism in your area, we’re raising your water bill by 50%. feel free to complain to your MP who let us do this on the basis that we made a large donation to his re-election campaign and offered him a cushy director job when he’s finished. also, we’ll be doubling our shareholder dividend this year. thanks!”

    • Lemminary@lemmy.worldEnglish
      25·
      8 months ago

      I nether condemn or condone these actions, but if anyone needs cement for whatever reason I have some leftover in the garage.

      • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        8 months ago

        I know it’s often a lawyers job to throw anything and everything at the wall to see what sticks, but I feel there needs to be some consequences for bad faith, or in this case inhuman, arguments. Like, it fully reveals the priorities of the company and shows there is significant culture rot.

    • BakedGoods@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      62·
      8 months ago

      Better to gather up everyone at South West Water, every shareholder, dig a hole to put them in, and dump the cement over them. A more permanent solution to such problems.

  • Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    271·
    8 months ago

    Am I the only one who thinks that anyone who makes an argument like this should immediately be executed?

    • Cataphract@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      8 months ago

      Is it an unpopular opinion that swimming in the ocean…kinda sucks? It’s great for spelunking/exploring, viewing, etc. but I would rather swim in a pool if I had the two choices in front of me.

  • SpaceScotsman@startrek.websiteEnglish
    15·
    8 months ago

    England really needs to get right to roam legislation like Scotland. It would make it more difficult for companies to make claims like this and make it clear that everyone has a responsibility to keep nature clean as its a shared resource

  • FatLegTedEnglish
    11·
    8 months ago

    There’s a French lady, Madam something or other that might help out here. Seriously though, there really needs to be severe action taken on these companies, and as Lemming421 said, stuff the shareholders, it’s their pure greed and arrogance that has led us here.

  • AngstyPonyEnglish
    1·
    8 months ago

    Isn’t the sea a commons? (I checked and it’s the high seas that are “Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction”) Maybe the Govt doesn’t require the water-company to keep the rivers and seas disease-free - they did reduce environmental standards, at least once. So legally they might be correct. But in reality, a shitty company doing the dirty work of a shitty government.

  • OfficerBribe@lemm.eeEnglish
    432·
    8 months ago

    While it obviously seems ridiculous, waste water must go somewhere. Last part of the article:

    However, a solicitor familiar with swimming rights suggests the law is not as clear as campaigners suggest.

    Nathan Willmott, a partner at law firm Ashurst, said: “The statutory regime governing water companies has been held by the courts to cancel out certain common law rights that water users would otherwise have against water companies for allowing sewage discharge into the water and making it unsafe to swim in.”

    But he suggested that if South West Water were to be found guilty of breaching the regulations on when sewage can been spilled into the sea, then its immunity from prosecution may not apply.

    The tone of their response could have been better though.

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      8 months ago

      Yeah, you clean it, process the extracted waste and recycle the water… At least that’s what normal people expect to happen. Allowing a company to externalize their waste to be “the worlds” problem is not acceptable. They should have to pay for the clean up.

      This would require the water company to properly charge their customers based on how filthy they make the water. Normal household vs chemical giant for example.

      • OfficerBribe@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        8 months ago

        Did a bit of a reading how it works locally around me and turns out there indeed is a treatment process involving bacteries that eat the bad stuff and then you get treated water + sludge. Sludge is re-used for bunch of stuff and water is pumped back at sea. Never really thought how it all works, in my mind it just got dumped somewhere.

        • RubberDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          8 months ago

          Yeah it’s pretty high tech and corrosive business. Companies should clean it properly, the oceans feed us and give us oxygen so no dumping raw sewage