tulip in our rivers

[vetran]

That's the kiddy. Data centres on the M4 corridor IIRC.

Do we want more storage for YouTube videos or more houses?

It's also hard to add more inputs to the electricity system because of the way connections are managed. You get connected in the order your 'application' was put in, not when your project is ready to launch. So, company A puts in an application to connect their project first and company B puts theirs in a while later. A few years down the line, company B is ready to go but can't because company A is 10 years away from launch.

That's a gross oversimplification, of course

https://www.theguardian.com/business...s-ofgem-energy

Actually Data centres are the least of our problems. Demand is mainly static and they tend to have dedicated supplies using renewables and back up batteries. Also the move to net zero is pushing them to green alternatives.

https://news.microsoft.com/europe/fe...nergy-sources/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/bl...s-datacenters/

Load shedding data centres is a thing.

[ladymuck]

I think it was ladymuck who pointed out that in some parts of London they can't build any more housing as they don't have enough electricity to supply the housing.

Ahh - this story https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62346322

That's the kiddy. Data centres on the M4 corridor IIRC.

Do we want more storage for YouTube videos or more houses?

It's also hard to add more inputs to the electricity system because of the way connections are managed. You get connected in the order your 'application' was put in, not when your project is ready to launch. So, company A puts in an application to connect their project first and company B puts theirs in a while later. A few years down the line, company B is ready to go but can't because company A is 10 years away from launch.

That's a gross oversimplification, of course

https://www.theguardian.com/business...s-ofgem-energy

[vetran]

I think it was ladymuck who pointed out that in some parts of London they can't build any more housing as they don't have enough electricity to supply the housing.

Ahh - this story https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62346322

Just the tip of the Iceberg sadly.

The national grid was built nearly 100 years ago when we had a fraction of the population and electricity demands. energy suppliers need either to redesign our usage or expand the grid, they have done neither. Electric cars and heating are going to exacerbate the issue. Multiple governments failed to govern as usual!

[SueEllen]

They build a 1000 new houses and expect the Victorian sewage system to carry the Tulip away. When was the last time you saw "building a new sewage pipe for these new houses." or " Erecting new power pylons or gas pipes to service houses".

So 2500 new poops a day and the Victorian sewers overflow, because government doesn't restrain the water companies the cheapest & easiest solution (for them) is to pump tulip in the waterways.

We are starting to notice the shortage of trains, roads, schools, doctors and dentists but the infrastructure has been crumbling for years.

I think it was ladymuck who pointed out that in some parts of London they can't build any more housing as they don't have enough electricity to supply the housing.

Ahh - this story https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62346322

[vetran]

What the **** has water pollution got to do with house building?

Christ the UK is a clusterf*ck of epic proportions.

They build a 1000 new houses and expect the Victorian sewage system to carry the Tulip away. When was the last time you saw "building a new sewage pipe for these new houses." or " Erecting new power pylons or gas pipes to service houses".

So 2500 new poops a day and the Victorian sewers overflow, because government doesn't restrain the water companies the cheapest & easiest solution (for them) is to pump tulip in the waterways.

We are starting to notice the shortage of trains, roads, schools, doctors and dentists but the infrastructure has been crumbling for years.

[dsc]

This isn't a surprise - it was known the House of Lords thought the idea was stupid

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66804160

The House of Lords has blocked the UK government's plan to relax restrictions on water pollution to encourage housebuilding in England.

What the **** has water pollution got to do with house building?

Christ the UK is a clusterf*ck of epic proportions.

[SueEllen]

This isn't a surprise - it was known the House of Lords thought the idea was stupid

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66804160

The House of Lords has blocked the UK government's plan to relax restrictions on water pollution to encourage housebuilding in England.

[SueEllen]

The story that keeps tulipting.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-data-suggests

The Environment Agency is failing to regularly audit water companies to check they are telling the truth about pollution and illegal sewage dumping in England, the Guardian can reveal.
The audits contribute to the star rating companies are given for environmental performance by the watchdog. Some companies are being given top ratings, even though the FoI data suggests the EA has not audited them for several years.

“The agency has failed to do its job,” said Ashley Smith of the campaign group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP), which unearthed the FoI data seen by the Guardian. “Serious failure has been allowed to continue in the water industry and the regulator for many years.”

[dsc]

“The core of the issue is that where we interpret the law to mean that untreated sewage discharges should generally be allowed only in exceptional circumstances, such as during unusually heavy rainfall, it appears that the public authorities may have interpreted the law differently, permitting such discharges to occur more often.

The core issue is that they carried on without double checking it's allowed. Ffs the most idiotic excuse ever.

[JustKeepSwimming]

It's absurd that water, the most important natural resource, isn't nationalised.

[SueEllen]

Well there is tulip or raw sewage in our rivers and waterways.

Anyway the latest story is that ministers and OFWAT are also to blame for allowing raw sewage to be discharged into our rivers and waterways when it isn't raining.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-says-watchdog

The government and regulators may have broken the law by failing to stem raw sewage dumping into rivers by water companies in England, the new independent environmental watchdog has said.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), which was set up after Brexit to replace the enforcement powers of the European Commission, said an investigation suggested the government, the Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat may be failing to comply with environmental law and allowing raw sewage to be discharged by water companies more frequently than the law allows.

The findings for the first time point the finger at ministers for not stopping raw sewage discharges into rivers and seas.

Discharges of raw sewage are allowed to be released from storm overflows on the network only in exceptional circumstances. Investigations by the Guardian and other media organisations have revealed that water companies are using storm overflows much more frequently to discharge raw sewage.

The OEP was called in to investigate by the charity WildFish, which said it believed regulators were failing in their duty to enforce the law.

On Tuesday, the OEP said: “It appears that the public authorities may have interpreted the law differently, permitting such discharges to occur more often.”

The OEP said the Environment Agency failures related to the way it set permit conditions for raw sewage releases and in the way it enforced the conditions on the permits. Ofwat, the financial regulator, had potentially failed to properly use its powers to make enforcement orders where sewerage companies had failed to treat sewage.

The watchdog said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had possible failures relating to its duty to make enforcement orders where sewerage companies fail to comply with the law to effectively deal with sewage.

The failures are all related to duties in the urban wastewater treatment laws, which derive from EU law.

The UK government was in 2012 found to be in breach of the urban wastewater laws by the European court over raw sewage discharges.

Eleven years on, the OEP said if it found the failures were upheld it would seek to improve regulation in order to achieve long-term improvement in water quality. But the new body has far fewer powers than the European Commission when it comes to enforcement action against public bodies.

It has given the regulators two months to look at the information and to respond.

Helen Venn, the OEP’s chief regulatory officer, said: “As a result of our investigations so far, we think there may have been misinterpretations of some key points of law.

“The core of the issue is that where we interpret the law to mean that untreated sewage discharges should generally be allowed only in exceptional circumstances, such as during unusually heavy rainfall, it appears that the public authorities may have interpreted the law differently, permitting such discharges to occur more often.

“This then has consequences for the regulatory activity that follows. The guidance provided by government to regulators, and the permitting regime they put in place for the water companies, possibly allow untreated sewage discharges to occur more regularly than intended by the law without risk of sanction. This is what has created the possible failures to comply that we have identified.”