521 spills recorded at private sewage plants but 5 sites not even required to monitor spills

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today revealed that the number of sewage spills recorded at sites operated by PFI companies rose to 521 last year.

A freedom of information request from Scottish Liberal Democrats has also revealed that five sites run by the companies are exempt from requirements to monitor sewage overflow events.

While most sewage overflows in Scotland are operated by Scottish Water, some are operated by PFI companies, with SEPA licensing PFI companies to operate sewage overflows at 12 locations, including the Seafield Sewage Treatment Works in Edinburgh.

Of these 12 licences, 5 (41.7%) do not contain any requirement to monitor the frequency and duration of sewage overflow events, leaving people in the dark as to the scale of sewage dumping at these sites.

Among the sites which provided data, there were 521 spills recorded, including 177 in Edinburgh, 153 in Whitburn, 90 in Blackburn, West Lothian, 60 in East Calder and 40 in Newbridge. At these sites sewage spilled for a cumulative 3,523 hours in 2024.

SEPA currently do not proactively publish what monitoring data does exist for these PFI managed sewage overflows so this data can only be obtained through freedom of information requests at present. In its report into sewage dumping in Scotland, Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) called on SEPA to proactively publish data from PFI overflows. Following further pressure from the Liberal Democrats, SEPA have now committed to begin proactively publishing this data in the autumn.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"Scotland’s sewage crisis stinks.

"Not only are PFI companies routinely dumping sewage into Scotland's waters, SEPA does not even require many of them to monitor how often sewage is being dumped.

"Scots will rightly be concerned that they are not being given the full picture about this disgusting practice, we need to see all of these PFI overflows monitored. Scottish ministers need to stop their excuses and get tough on sewage dumping.

"To turn the tide on this crisis Scottish Liberal Democrats have published plans for a Clean Water Act that would see a new blue flag system for Scotland's rivers, as well as vital updates to our sewage network and a clamp down on discharges."