SDS Market Development Manager, Jo Bradley, is a key contributor to a hard-hitting ENDS Report article on the apparent absence of monitoring and control of pollutant-rich road runoff.
Author Rachel Salvidge reports that both the Environment Agency and Highways England are “brushing under the carpet widespread toxic road runoff and classifying serious water pollution incidents from highways outfalls as being the result of natural causes leaving them unregulated and unchecked.”
The article states that Highways England had identified 2,500 highways outfalls posing a risk to water courses following a 2002 report. The study, seen by ENDS, reveals that some discharges are well above the legal limits for copper, zinc, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as set out under environmental quality standards.
Unlike sewage works’ discharges, highways outfalls are not permitted and not monitored. But, despite the high levels of pollutants, PAHs are persistent and carcinogenic – very little is being done to limit their impact.
