§ Mr. GaleTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many times during the past 12 months for which details are available raw sewage has been released into the sea from the Foreness Point sewage plant; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the telemetry used to monitor overflows at the Foreness Point sewage plant. [58604]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 23 May 2002]: Discharge is recorded by use of a pump run meter. This meter has shown that the storm pumps have operated once in the past 12 months for approximately eight minutes.
The discharge consent for the Foreness outfall, issued in February 1985, has no conditions requiring monitoring or telemetry to record storm overflow events. The water utility is therefore under no legal obligation to record these events. This situation will be reviewed in the proposed combined scheme for collection of waste water from Margate and Broadstairs.