Public has no right to swim in sea, claims firm that dumped sewage at bathing spot

South West Water is claiming it has no legal obligation to keep rivers and seawater clean of sewage in its defence against a Devon swimmer who is taking the water company to court.

Jo Bateman, who attempts to swim every day off the coast of Exmouth, is taking legal action against South West Water, claiming its frequent sewage discharges into the sea have taken away her legal right to a public “amenity”.

However, in its defence to Ms Bateman’s claim, seen by i, the water firm states no one has a legal right to swim in the sea.

TransplantedSconie, (edited )

Take the CEO and board members, tar and feather them, then throw them into the spot they dump their shit.

The public has no legal obligation to provide soap.

some_guy,

And stop breathing our precious air!

thesporkeffect,

Holy shit. Is there no law against dumping waste? It seems immaterial whether someone has a ‘right to swim’, that’s not the issue at hand dude

5in1k,

The water treatment executives have no right to not have pieces of lead lodged in their heads.

Honytawk,

Even if that were true, that firm still has no right to dump sewage in the sea

jpreston2005,

Its added that even during the peak summer holiday season, South West Water and other firms have no duty to meet certain water quality standards.

“woah, woah, we’re a sewage company, we dump sewage. we’re not a clean water company. So what duty could we possibly have to dump sewage in a responsible manner?”

The defence states: “Even during the bathing season, there is no absolute right to swim each day.”

“you also don’t have an absolute right to walk on a public road, that’s where we’ll be dumping sewage next”

South West Water said it is the responsibility of the Government and the EA to ensure clean water, not the water companies that manage the nation’s rivers and coastline.

“Not our job to clean water, you want the Government. We’re just supposed to manage the water near the shore, so we dump all the sewage about a foot past where our jurisdiction stops. See? no problem!”

RIP_Cheems,
@RIP_Cheems@lemmy.world avatar

Last time I checked, no one owns the ocean.

You999,

I’d love to see a suit like this brought in the US specifically a state like Oregon where you have the right to use beaches.

AngryCommieKender,

Does Washington have that law as well? That would mean that we protected the entire west coast of the main 48. I somehow suspect that neither AK or HI have such laws.

You999,

If I remember correctly yes with one exception for a beach just north of picnic point. That beach is to my knowledge the only privately owned beach in Washington because it used to be a ship salvage yard and several boats are still on the beach.

Burn_The_Right,

If history is our guide, the polluting corporation would win in a red state every time.

AngryCommieKender,

Thankfully the majority of the ocean facing states either have been blue for decades, or are rapidly switching blue.

space,

Why should the c suites have that right. Dump manure on their beach front property and yachts

OutlierBlue,

A clean environment should be everyone’s public amenity.

aniki,

In instances like this you’d think a Monarchy would have strong words about corporations polluting the land.

But you wont because they are worthless billionaire fucks. All of them deserve to be eaten.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

To be fair, the monarch in the UK is mostly a figurehead. To his credit (and I am far from a monarchist), Charles has been advocating for environmental causes for a very long time. Sometimes stupidly, but he does actually give a shit. I just don’t know that he has the power to do anything about it and the Tories certainly don’t care.

Omgpwnies,

I don’t think he can dictate laws, but he can unilaterally dissolve parliament and force an election (same as other commonwealth countries, the queen did that to Australia back in 1975). So if it’s a big enough issue, he technically could use that as a threat, though it would be a pretty nuclear option.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t know that this particular event, as heinous as it may be, warrants such an action. That should be reserved for, for example, parliament trying to side with Putin on Ukraine.

Omgpwnies,

Yeah, the 1975 incident was because the Tories allowed the government to shut down because they refused to pass a budget. The speaker kicked out the PM, appointed a temporary one, passed the budget, then dissolved parliament entirely. However, the mere threat can sometimes be enough.

aniki,

theguardian.com/…/queen-secret-influence-laws-rev…

That’s the PR line but it’s just propaganda.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I’m talking about Charles, not Elizabeth. Charles has famously worked for environmental causes for a very long time. He’s often an idiot about it and supports misguided causes, but he’s not in favor of this sort of pollution. He does have to pay fealty to Sunak’s government though. He’s not going to go against any of their major policy initiatives even if he doesn’t agree with them.

Also, that link doesn’t say anything about environmental laws as far as I can tell.

Wilbur025,

In my mind, this story equates to life as a human being on this planet, in general.

arin,

Title sounds like the fucking onion

loutr,
@loutr@sh.itjust.works avatar

Well, Nestlé argues that people don’t actually have a right to have access to clean water to live, so that doesn’t seem farfetched at all…

Instigate,

There are two ways to think about rights: there are legal rights and then there are human rights. Legal rights are conferred by some piece of legal document (legislation, constitution or common law) that a person is able to seek legal redress if their right has been revoked or diminished. Then there are human rights - what we as individual humans believe that each humans should expect as a basic right. The two are not always aligned, predominately because human rights vary greatly from one person’s interpretation to the next.

I think what the company is probably (accurately) arguing is that there is no legal right to swim in the UK, as no specific document states this with any specificity, so the complainant isn’t due compensation or redress of behaviour under the law. This is what the courts will examine as they are the interpreters of law but not the creators of law.

Now, does she have a human right to swim there free of sewage? I damn well think so, and I don’t think that would be a controversial opinion either. The problem is that what we think the law should be and what it is are often different, because legislation can’t represent every view simultaneously. There’s no law that could be drafted that makes forced birthers and pro choice people agree - someone will always lose out.

All of this is to say that while fighting this in court is a shitty thing to do (pun very much intended), it makes sense based upon the way our legal system is set up. There is no incentive for private business to respect rights that are not legally conferred, but there is a financial incentive to do the ‘cheaper and technically legal’ thing. Until we overhaul our legal systems to be inherently protective rather than inherently exploitative, this behaviour will continue.

PriorityMotif,
@PriorityMotif@lemmy.world avatar

There’s no legal document because nobody was dumb enough to think that in the first place. If you have to write a law for everything people are allowed to do because some twat wants to argue in bad faith, then the legal system has no basis in reality. In fact, if that were the case, then there is a chicken/egg problem with laws in the first place.

andrewth09,

Hear that boys? Air is not an unalienable right! starts dumping all the fun pool chemicals into some building lobbie’s indoor fountain

bartolomeo,

I respect where you’re coming from but you’ve got to remember that the lobby is on private property so you will get fucked to the full extent of the law.

maynarkh,

If only public property was protected as fiercely as private property.

SkybreakerEngineer,

Geev dese peepul ayuh!

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