Press Release: Environment: Commission refers the United Kingdom to Court over poor waste water collection and treatment

The European Commission referred the United Kingdom to Court over its failure to ensure that urban waste water is adequately treated in 17 agglomerations.

In four of the agglomerations in question (Banchory, Stranraer, Ballycastle, and Clacton), treatment was inadequate, and one agglomeration, Gibraltar, had no treatment plant at all. In ten other agglomerations, where the waste water discharged into sensitive areas such as freshwaters and estuaries, the existing treatment failed to meet the more stringent standards required for such areas.

The Commission referred the case to the Court of Justice of the EU.