Water firms' dismay over IPPC impact on sewage treatment

As many as 250 sewage treatment works which landfill or incinerate sludge may fall under the integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) Directive early next year. However, the Environment Agency has concluded that the regime need not apply to the principal sewage treatment activities on site, but only to the treatment of sludge. Water companies are complaining that the policy will prove costly and bureaucratic and bring little environmental benefit.