this similar??

Mercedes-Benz appears before High Court for first time over emissions scandal claims – Car Dealer Magazine

wouldn`t have trusted first link as its a redirect...

I wouldn't trust the second link, because "Car Dealer"

But seriously though. I don't really understand why this is a civil action, since/and I don't see how the car owners are especially damaged.

If, as alleged, this involves cheating emmission controls, everyone is potentially damaged, not just Mercedes owners, and this should be a criminal prosecution.

Accountability from government is unfortunately an old faded memory.

Rules for them and rules for us. We are not allowed rain from our roofs to go into the waste water sewers, but water companies can discharge said sewers into the rivers, criminal which ever way you look at it.

Accountability from government is unfortunately an old faded memory.

Rules for them and rules for us. We are not allowed rain from our roofs to go into the waste water sewers, but water companies can discharge said sewers into the rivers, criminal which ever way you look at it.

Where does your rain water go when it's come off your roof and down the drain pipe?

Some goes into sewers, some goes into soakaway. It depends on your ground conditions and set up. Mine goes into a well, then the aquifer.

This whole drain thing is widely misunderstood, so I will explain again. Until flushing toilets came along, rainwater mostly fell in to the ground and quite a lot of foul water joined it. Some people had dust cupboards where all solid waste went until it was removed by the dustmen and tipped out of town.

The Victorians realised that lack.of sanitation was causing cholera etc so came.up with sewage systems. They discharged into rivers or the sea. It was further realised that rainwater could also be sent down these pipes and keep the ground dry. After all, it was only going to the river eventually anyway.

Over the course of the 20th century, it became increasingly clear that chucking pollution into rivers and the sea was a bad idea. More sewage treatment plants were built to clean water up before it's discharged. However, these plants have a limited capacity, so it was decided to switch from a system of having one 'combined' sewer to having two 'storm' and 'foul' sewers. The storm sewers discharge into water courses, or the ground, and the foul sewers go to the treatment plant.

A very large number of existing sewers are still combined. If there is a lot of rain, the treatment plants can't cope with the volume of liquid coming into them. The safety valve is to revert back to the old solution of allowing the sewers to discharge into rivers and the sea until the volume is back down to manageable levels.

If you build something new and you want to discharge surface water into a combined sewer, you need to demonstrate that there is absolutely no other option. Ths means establishing whether percolation could work, in which case you send the water to soakaway, or if there is a watercourse to discharge to. In any case, you need to attenuate the discharge to either slow the flow into the network or, if you are using percolation, prevent flooding.

In short, the reason why you are not simply allowed to connect a new roof into the existing drainage is that the existing drain is a combined sewer, which your roof will be filling, causing it to discharge into a river. It is precisely to prevent pollution.

Edited by Adampr on 04/05/2023 at 21:45