Most reservoirs in England are now at “notably” or “exceptionally” low storage levels after a sixth consecutive dry month, triggering government intervention and temporary drought measures to safeguard public supply. The Environment Agency has activated drought plans and is working with water companies on options including reduced abstraction from sensitive catchments and accelerated deployment of temporary use bans. Civil and water engineers should anticipate tighter operating constraints on raw water intakes, revised yield assumptions for treatment works, and potential fast‑tracked resilience schemes such as inter‑basin transfers and leakage reduction projects.

South West Water has been fined £7.87M after a judge ruled that multiple environmental offences across Devon and Cornwall stemmed from “reckless failures” in its management systems and responses to known pollution risks. The case centres on repeated discharges from wastewater assets, with the court pointing to inadequate operational controls and risk management rather than isolated incidents. For civil and environmental engineers, the ruling signals closer scrutiny of sewerage network operation, monitoring regimes and contingency planning for combined sewer overflows and treatment works.

BQE Water has restarted the selenium removal plant at Centerra Gold’s Kemess project in British Columbia, using its patented Selen-IX™ ion exchange process to treat mine-impacted water. The Kemess installation was the first full-scale Selen-IX™ plant, designed to remove dissolved selenium to low µg/L levels without generating large volumes of sludge typical of lime co-precipitation systems. The restart confirms long-term operability of the modular Selen-IX™ circuit, relevant for sites facing tightening selenium discharge limits in mountainous, high-runoff catchments.