Pollution incidents fall but concerns remain for EA

More than half of England’s water companies are now achieving the highest industry rating for environmental performance but the Environment Agency (EA) insists it still has “serious cause for concern”.

The EA’s annual Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) showed serious pollution incidents have dropped to their lowest level with five English water companies achieving the top rating.

United Utilities, Northumbrian, Yorkshire, Wessex and Severn Trent all attained 4* for 2020, while Southern and South West ranked lowest with 2* each.

The annual assessment of English water and sewerage companies showed overall improvement for serious incidents but the EA said the sector must make substantial improvements to meet all EPA targets.

The agency said Southern and South West’s performance gave “serious cause for concern” as they have remained at the bottom of the table with 2* for the five years the EPA has been published. This, the EA said, “drags down the whole sector’s reputation”.

Anglian and Thames have not shown significant improvement during the period with more than half of all serious incidents attributed to them last year.

Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the EA, said: “Over half the water sector is now achieving the highest industry rating, showing that clear targets and regulatory focus combined with investment in the environment delivers change in the water sector. But some companies are still failing in their duty to the environment and there remains a tendency to reach for excuses rather than grasp the nettle. As last week’s £90 million fine for Southern Water showed, environmental laws must not be undermined.”

She added she met with water company chairs recently to set out expectations for them to redouble their efforts to improve or maintain their environmental performance.

The EA said Wessex, UU and Severn Trent have sustained industry-leading performance over the past five years, while Northumbrian and Yorkshire showed improvement on pollution incidents and compliance with permits.

Serious pollution incidents fell for a second year in a row and were at their lowest number recorded, however the EA urged the sector to accelerate to reach zero incidents. Despite a fall in serious incidents the total number of category 1 to 3 pollution events was the second highest since 2015 when the EPA began.

The assessment showed Southern and South West to have “consistently unacceptable” performance with each significantly below target for sewerage incidents, which South West had missed for 10 years in a row. It was also the only company to be significantly below target on serious incidents, however more than half of the total were due to Anglian and Thames.

Discharges from sewage treatments cause 32 per cent of water bodies to be below good ecological status, while 7 per cent failed due to storm overflows. Agriculture and land management remains the highest source of pollution into water bodies at 40 per cent. The EA said it wants to see “substantial” improvements from water company performance.

Around 40 per cent of reported pollution incidents are caused by blockages, of which 60 per cent are due to wet wipes. The EA called for action from retailers to take action to change consumer behaviour to not flush wipes and praised Northumbrian’s Bin the Wipe campaign.

Christine McGourty, chief executive at Water UK, praised the progress made and noted the sector’s £5 billion investment into environmental improvements during this AMP including nature-based solutions.

“Looking ahead, we need government and regulators to work with the water industry on ensuring rivers get the investment they need to achieve and sustain the best possible water quality,” McGourty said.