Thérèse Coffey – Secretary of State for pollution

The government minister who is meant to drive improvement in the environment seems to be stuck in reverse. She says she does “give a shit”, but it doesn’t show.

Freeport dredging- marine die-offs

The development of 10 Freeports around the UK was an initiative launched by Boris Johnson as an attempt to boost the UK economy post-Brexit. The location of some them was also designed to play a part in the Government ‘Levelling Up’ agenda.

The construction of the coastal ones requires a lot of dredging. Many of these Freeport locations, such as the one in Teeside, have a long history of industrial activity, spillages and oil/fuel leakage.It’s not difficult to understand that sediments in the vicinity of these locations are likely to contain toxic and harmful chemicals.

Dredging in the Teeside area was carried out by the port authority in September 2021. In October there were a large number of reports of huge piles of dead and dying crabs, lobsters and shellfish washing up on the beaches along the coast near Teeside. In places, the piles were waist deep. There were repeats of marine life die-offs continuing to December 2021. In addition, dogs that went in to the sea around that time suffered illnes.

Fishermen have reported a devestating impact on catches. Catches have been down by up to 90%.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) concluded that the die-offs were the result of toxic algal blooms. Fishermen report that they did not notice any algal bloom events between October and December 2021. Algal blooms tend to be warm weather events. Fish samples taken at various locations were found to be contaminated with pyridine. Pyridine is a toxin that can be used in some industrial processes. DEFRA claimed that the levels detected were safe. An independent marine pollution consultant (Tim Deere-Jones) pointed out that samples from control crabs collected in Penzance had just under 6mg per kilogram of the toxic chemical, the Saltburn crabs were found to have more than 400mg per kg. “That’s not a natural level, that’s a human impact level”.

Irrespective of the actual cause of the marine die-off, there is sufficient cause to pause dredging work to allow further investigation. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee called for.an inquiry which was set up. Conservative committee chairman and MP for Scarborough and Whitby Sir Robert Goodwill said the inquiry should be “open and collaborative” to “rebuild trust and work towards a consensus”. Unfortunately Thérèse Coffey did not deign to publish the terms of reference for the inquiry panel or its membership which was set up in December 2022. In the meantime dredging for the Teeside Freeport commenced in September 2022. Calls for a suspension on dredging until the inquiry has been completed have been ignored.

Air pollution

Despite evidence from experts at King’s College London and University College London, Coffey has decided that key air pollution targets, such as reductions in particulates (PM 2.5) cannot be achieved until 2040 as opposed to the previous target of 2030. This is probably partly due to her refusal to ban wood burning stoves These are known to be a significant source of pollution in urban areas. She has also announced there will be no new funding for projects to reduce air pollution.

Water Pollution

Coffey should know what she is doing with water.

One of the main issues about water pollution at the moment is the dumping of raw sewage into rivers. Most people think it is a priority. In a meeting with water company executives in October 2021 Environment secretary Therese Coffey said stopping dumping ‘not her priority’. Then a while later she demands that water companies send their plans for addressing the sewage problem. It’s not surprising that there is confusion with tackling water pollution. It starts with her. The water companies readily admit that there is an urgent need to tackle this issue, but with confusion and mixed messages from the Secretary of State responsible it’s not surprising that things are a bit shambolic. In October 2022 she pushed back the date by which clean water and targets were to be defined, putting the government in breach of its own Environment Act. She eventually published these in January 2023. The targets around water are:

Reduce agricultural pollution into the water supply by 40 percent
Reduce wastewater pollution by 80 percent
Reduce the length of rivers polluted by metals by 50 percent
Reduce the use of public water supply per person by 20 percent

There is nothing in there about sewage pollution. Even the heads of the water companies are calling for clear guidance and targets, not the vague notion of do something in 25 years time.

It’s almost as if Thérèse Coffey really couldn’t care less about her job. With pollution into the rivers and sea it seems like fish don’t have a vote so fish don’t matter. It’s as if, despite her insistence, she couldn’t give a shit.

Image licensed under the Open Government Licence version 1.0