A councillor has written to Scotland’s environment minister to draw her attention to a recent discharge of sewage into Loch Leven and ask if anything can be done to stop further pollution incidents in future.
Kinross-shire councillor Willie Robertson decided to write to the minister to highlight the incident after receiving a response from SEPA he felt was dismissive of his concerns for the quality of water in the loch.
Councillor Robertson contacted the agency saying large quantities of untreated sewage leaked from a local waste water treatment plant over the heritage trail and into the loch on September 8.
The body suggested a reason sewage could have been discharged to the loch was sewers in the area accept both surface water and foul water and heavy showers had filled the sewers to the point if the water was not drained somewhere it would back up into people’s properties.
“Obviously your constituents would not appreciate their homes being flooded with sewage,” SEPA told councillor Robertson in their reply.
“Therefore, until the entire historic sewer network is replaced, separating out the foul water from the surface water, the only other alternative is discharge to the environment during periods of heavy rainfall.
“This is not a system unique to the Loch Leven Catchment and is a historic standard sewer design across Scotland.”
Councillor Robertson has said he considers that response to be inadequate, however, and has now written to Mairi McAllan MSP asking if she can intervene to make the protection of the loch more of a priority.
“I am contacting you with regard to a serious pollution incident which occurred at Loch Leven [last] month,” councillor Robertson wrote.
“As you may well know Loch Leven is a SSSI and RAMSAR site so is given special protection under European and UK legislation.
“I contacted SEPA following a major incident which resulted in countless amounts of raw sewage entering Loch Leven from the Kinross waste water treatment plant. This is becoming a more and more common occurrence.
“What really worried me was the reply I have received from SEPA.
“Any landowner/farmer who allowed this to happen would be prosecuted but when Scottish Water is the culprit it appears to be regarded as ‘just one of these things’. The special protections allocated to Loch Leven seem to count for nothing.
“I am sure you will be as alarmed as I am at the apparent relaxed attitude being taken by SEPA in their duties to protect our environment.
“Loch Leven already suffers from increasing instances of toxic algal blooms due to the amount of phosphorous entering the loch and there are ongoing efforts to reduce this.
“It is totally unacceptable here in Kinross-shire that our most valuable asset, Loch Leven, is being used as an open sewer by Scottish Water and that SEPA are turning a blind eye to this.
“I would welcome your comments on this situation and would be grateful for any actions you can take to prevent further damaging pollution incidents such as the one I have highlighted.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson told the PA Ms McAllan would respond to councillor Robertson directly in due course.
They said: “The Scottish Government takes the matter of sewage pollution very seriously and works closely with SEPA and Scottish Water to reduce its impacts on the water environment.
“Scottish Water has committed investment in recent years to improve infrastructure within Kinross sewage works and SEPA will continue to monitor and work with Scottish Water to take action where required.”
A spokesperson for SEPA commented: “Many parts of the Scottish sewer network are historic and have Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs).
“These are designed to prevent sewers from backing up and flooding homes, streets and sewage works by discharging during heavy rainfall.
“It would not be appropriate for SEPA to prevent a discharge happening as this would lead to damage via sewer flooding.
“This was the situation at the Kinross waste water treatment works on September 8. The incident was reported to SEPA, which contacted Scottish Water to check both the sewage treatment works and the burn.
“Scottish Water confirmed that they were already on site and a clean-up was underway of the affected area. They also confirmed that the sewage works was operating and running normally.
“SEPA officers subsequently attended the site and found no evidence of sewage debris or pollution in the burn.
“We continue to encourage members of the public to report signs of pollution online at www.sepa.org.uk/report or by calling the SEPA pollution hotline on 0800 80 70 60.”
A spokesperson for Scottish Water added: “Our waste water treatment works in Kinross is checked regularly to ensure it is operating to a high standard and that effective measures are in place to screen any storm overflows and minimise their impact on the local environment.
“Wherever flooding or a spill occurs which is causing concern, we would ask for this to be reported to us directly as quickly as possible on 0800 077 8778 so that our local team can attend, investigate and take action
when required.”
