Geomechanics.io

Levels of two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in England’s rivers have fallen by about 30% over the past decade, according to new Environment Agency monitoring data. The assessment points to improved control at industrial discharge points and some wastewater treatment works, but also identifies gaps where conventional plants lack advanced PFAS removal processes such as activated carbon or high-pressure membrane treatment. For civil and environmental engineers, the findings signal likely future upgrades to sewage works, tighter discharge consents and more stringent design criteria for treatment infrastructure.

Thames Water has reached 100 days since declaring a drought across London and the Thames Valley, with key storage such as the Farmoor and Queen Mary reservoirs still below long‑term average levels despite recent rainfall. Groundwater in several Chalk and Thames Gravels aquifers remains depressed, limiting recharge to strategic sources and sustaining pressure on abstraction licences. Civil and water engineers face continued constraints on network planning, leakage control and future resilience schemes, with no immediate scope to relax existing demand‑management measures.

Rio Tinto and its Rhodes Ridge Joint Venture partners are committing A$28 million over five years to establish a 7,500‑sq‑km Toad Containment Zone between the Indian Ocean and the Great Sandy Desert, modifying or decommissioning 685 pastoral water points to block cane toads before they reach the Pilbara iron ore province. The barrier is intended to protect about 27 million hectares of habitat and at least 25 vulnerable native species, including northern quolls and ghost bats, from a projected invasion within two decades. For miners, success could avoid materially higher environmental approval hurdles and long‑term compliance costs tied to ecosystem damage and Indigenous cultural impacts on bush tucker species such as goannas.

Yorkshire Water has announced that non-executive director Nicola Medalova will replace Nicola Shaw as chief executive in January, one day after regulators issued the company the lowest possible environmental performance rating. The joint regulator report placed Yorkshire Water at the bottom tier for pollution incidents and compliance, intensifying scrutiny of its wastewater and storm overflow management across its network. Leadership change at this point signals likely shifts in capital investment priorities, asset maintenance strategies and environmental risk management for existing treatment works and sewer infrastructure.

Enersea in the UK and Dutch firm Carbon Haven are jointly developing an offshore CO₂ injection system to convert depleted North Sea gas platforms into permanent storage sites. The concept focuses on reusing existing jackets, topsides and subsea pipelines to transport and inject captured CO₂ into exhausted gas reservoirs, avoiding new large-diameter trunklines and minimising new offshore construction. For civil and geotechnical engineers, the work centres on verifying long-term well integrity, platform structural capacity under altered loading, and caprock sealing performance for geological containment.

England and Wales’ four main water regulators have issued a first joint performance report, finding treated drinking water quality remains high while pollution incidents from wastewater networks and storm overflows are still unacceptably frequent. The consolidated assessment compares all water and sewerage companies on metrics such as serious pollution events, leakage per kilometre of main, and compliance with discharge permits. For civil and environmental engineers, the report signals continued regulatory pressure on CSO capacity upgrades, sewer rehabilitation, and treatment works resilience rather than on potable water process redesign.

Anglian Water has been fined £1.6M after local mismanagement led to untreated sewage discharges into the River Brain in Essex over a six-week period in 2022, breaching its environmental permit. The Environment Agency investigation found operational failures at wastewater assets rather than storm-related exceedance, pointing to inadequate on-site oversight and response procedures. For civil and water engineers, the case signals closer regulatory scrutiny of network operations, incident logging and real-time monitoring on combined sewer overflows and treatment works.

Sudan’s wartime gold boom is driving rapid expansion of artisanal mining in River Nile and Northern states, with 2–5 million people now dependent on largely unregulated operations using mercury mixers and cyanide basins near palm groves, farms and shallow groundwater. Field investigations around El-Obeidiya and Abu Hamad report millions of tonnes of karta tailings, mercury readings in Village 3 soils up to 2,825.24 (units unspecified) and earlier surveys finding mercury and cyanide in 20% of sampled drinking water north of Atbara. Artisanal mining now provides about 80% of Sudan’s gold output and 58% of export revenues, severely constraining enforcement of bans on mercury and cyanide use outside certified facilities.

Ofwat has proposed accepting a £280,000 enforcement package from Hafren Dyfrdwy after finding the company breached legal obligations in operating its wastewater treatment works and sewer network. The action follows failures in compliance at multiple assets, signalling closer scrutiny of treatment performance, discharge consents and network operation in the company’s largely rural Welsh service area. Designers and operators of wastewater infrastructure should expect tighter monitoring of process reliability, overflow management and asset condition, with potential implications for upgrade priorities and resilience planning.

A former 30-hectare golf course at Sandilands on the Lincolnshire coast has been converted by the National Trust into a wetland nature reserve after a six-year programme of planning, consultation and earthworks. Lead consultant Influence Landscape Planning & Design regraded fairways into a mosaic of wetlands, grassland and coastal scrub, with accessible boardwalks, trails and a new visitor hub including café, expanded car parking and changing place facilities. The reserve sits within Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park on the East Coast Flyway, targeting habitat gains for thousands of migratory birds.

Eryri National Park Authority has withdrawn its own planning approval for a proposed hydroelectric dam in north Wales after legal pressure from campaigners over environmental impacts. The scheme, intended to generate low‑carbon power from an upland catchment within the protected landscape, faced objections over river ecology, habitat disturbance and construction access in sensitive terrain. Designers and contractors now face greater uncertainty for small hydro and other linear infrastructure within UK national parks, particularly around cumulative impacts on headwater streams and designated habitats.

England’s nine water and sewerage companies failed to report more than 50,000 sewage discharges within the legally required timeframe in the first half of 2026, according to campaign group Surfers Against Sewage. The missed notifications affect storm overflow and combined sewer outfall events that should trigger rapid incident reporting to regulators and local authorities. For drainage and wastewater engineers, the scale of under-reporting complicates network performance assessment, spill frequency analysis and the design of storage, screening and real-time control upgrades.

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.

Egis has appointed Jamie Gleave as senior environmental impact assessment technical director for the UK, bringing more than 25 years’ experience across energy, transport and water infrastructure, including Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station and National Grid electricity transmission schemes. Gleave previously served as EIA technical director at AECOM, where he led its global EIA technical excellence practice and directed environmental work on the A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet and M42 Junction 6 DCO schemes, acting as expert witness. He will work with UK–Ireland head of environment Afshan Rasheed to build Egis’s EIA, DCO and technical assurance capability.

United Utilities has been fined £900,000 after admitting five environmental permit breaches linked to a major raw sewage discharge on the Fylde coast in June 2023, following failures in its wastewater treatment and overflow control systems. The incident involved untreated effluent bypassing normal screening and settlement processes during storm conditions, leading to prolonged discharge through combined sewer overflows into coastal waters used for bathing. For civil and environmental engineers, the case reinforces regulatory scrutiny on stormwater storage capacity, real-time CSO monitoring, and resilience of ageing sewer networks under intense rainfall events.

EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear project has applied for permission to appeal a tribunal decision that would bring the 3.2GW plant under Environmental Information Regulations, forcing greater disclosure of environmental data. The ruling, won by campaigners, could require release of detailed monitoring on coastal impacts, cooling water abstraction and construction emissions from major works such as the 900m seawater intake tunnels. Designers, contractors and consultants on similar large infrastructure schemes may face tighter scrutiny over environmental modelling assumptions, baseline data and ongoing performance reporting.

Eighty-three per cent of Britain’s cities – 59 urban areas – are classed as highly vulnerable to urban heat in new spatial analysis by Ordnance Survey, the Met Office and 4 Earth Intelligence. The dataset combines OS building footprints, surface cover and green space with Met Office temperature projections to map local heat exposure at street-block scale. For civil and geotechnical engineers, this points to urgent retrofit of shading, permeable and high-albedo surfaces, and revised pavement and rail design to cope with more frequent extreme surface temperatures.

Galliford Try’s environment business has secured a £110M contract from Severn Trent Water to deliver the River Mease improvement project, targeting water quality upgrades on the protected River Mease catchment in the Midlands. Works are expected to centre on wastewater treatment enhancements, sewer network upgrades and nature-based solutions to cut nutrient loading into this Special Area of Conservation. The scale of the programme signals significant opportunities for geotechnical input on riverbank stabilisation, outfall structures and construction in sensitive, high-groundwater environments.

Decommissioning of Scotland’s first commercial wind farm, operated by ScottishPower, is being used as a UK-first testbed to align turbine end-of-life with material reuse and circular economy principles. Analysis of the dismantling process tracks recovery pathways for steel towers, concrete foundations and composite blades, examining options such as onshore recycling, repowering and secondary construction uses. Outcomes will inform future decommissioning strategies for UK wind assets, with direct implications for design-for-disassembly, waste permitting and contractual requirements on recyclability.

InCapture and Yara Pilbara Fertilisers have signed a non-binding MoU to evaluate large-scale offshore carbon storage infrastructure for industrial emitters in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The partners will study technical options for multi-user CO₂ transport and injection, along with regulatory approvals for offshore storage permits and long-term liability. Outcomes could shape future capture hubs for gas, fertiliser and mining operations in the Pilbara, influencing pipeline routing, injection well design and integration with existing process plants.

Stantec has acquired Sydney-headquartered environmental consultancy Niche and its wholly owned subsidiary Ausecology, expanding its environmental and approvals capability across Australia. Niche brings specialist services in ecology, biodiversity assessment and environmental impact studies for transport, energy and resources projects, complementing Stantec’s existing design and engineering portfolio. The deal signals stronger in-house capacity for early-stage constraints mapping, permitting support and ecological monitoring on major linear infrastructure and mining-related developments in sensitive habitats.

Petrobras has confirmed an oil discovery at the Morpho exploration well in ultra-deep water block FZA-M-59, about 175 km off Amapá in Brazil’s Foz do Amazonas basin, after drilling that began in October 2025 at roughly $1 million per day. The company has already spent $300 million on the well, about half on environmental protection measures, and plans a wider Equatorial Margin campaign with three further wells in this block and six elsewhere, pending IBAMA licences. Environmental and Indigenous groups have launched legal challenges over spill risk, climate impacts and lack of community consultation, creating significant permitting and ESG uncertainty for future offshore development.