Pollution incidents ‘worst since 2011’

English water companies have scored the worst results in the Environment Agency’s environmental performance assessment (EPA) since 2011.

Southern rated as poor while Anglian, Northumbrian and South West all received two-star ratings, signalling improvement is needed. Thames and United Utilities received three stars while Severn Trent and Wessex led the industry with four.

The annual report showed the sector has fallen short of performance expectations set in 2013 with pollution incidents rising to 1,952 in 2019, up from 1,623 the year before.

The number of serious incidents (category 1 and 2) declined from 56 to 52 but remains above the target of zero by 2020. Anglian, Northumbrian and Thames all reported a year-on-year increase in serious incidents.

Serious incidents reported at clean water assets halved to four, but the number of category 1 major incidents rose from nine to 11. Pollution events at sewerage assets remained flat at 48 with most happening at Anglian’s (12) and Thames’ (15) assets.

Southern was the worst performer, falling significantly below target for half the metrics and once again maintaining the one-star rating it has held since 2015. It doubled its number of reported pollution incidents year-on-year to 458, which the company claimed  was due to improved reporting techniques and an overhaul of company culture around reporting.

Since the exposure of a series of failings at the company between 2010 and 2015, Southern has implemented a pollution reduction plan that saw its reporting figures soar. Nick Mills, head of pollution and flooding resilience, told Utility Week this was a more accurate reflection of incidents rather than a steep increase. It was also the worst performer on delivery of its national environment programme, with only 90 per cent achieved for the year compared to other companies’ scores of more than 99 per cent.

South West, which recorded 180 events, consistently performed badly on number of pollution incidents and is the only company to have a remained “significantly below target” since 2011. However, the company had 100 per cent compliance at water treatment sites – along with UU and Thames.

Severn Trent and Wessex achieved the highest level of performance and United Utilities was the best performer for pollution incidents for the second year in a row with no serious occurrences.

Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the EA, said water companies will be required to publish and implement specific pollution reduction plans by the end of this year. She implied the EA is underfunded in its efforts to address and clean up the more than 240,000 kilometres of rivers in England, each of which is allocated just £62 of annual funding.

The EPA was introduced by the EA in 2011 to compare performance between water companies over time measuring performance on pollution incidents, compliance with discharge permits for sewage and water treatment works and track progress on delivery of improvement schemes as well as to monitor security of supply.

Environmental Audit Committee chair Philip Dunne said the “damming report” painted a bleak picture of the state of UK water companies and implored them to take urgent steps to improve. “The performance of certain water companies is simply not good enough,” said Dunne. “We all rely on water companies to go about our everyday lives. However, there seems to be a level of complacency resulting in terribly poor performance. All water companies must crack down on pollution which can be deeply damaging to the natural environment and human health.”

The state of rivers and waterways has come under considerable scrutiny following a number of high-profile pollution incidents and a recent report by EA and Defra that showed all English rivers are polluted.

Industry reaction 

Water UK’s chief executive Christine McGourty praised the companies that achieved high ratings and noted the decline in incidents since the 1990s. “But,” she said, “the data shows there is work to be done, and in an industry that’s committed to the highest environmental standards, water companies will be doubling efforts to share the very best practice, collaborate, innovate and work with all those involved to bring about continued improvements for the environment and our customers.”

An Anglian spokesperson said the company was disappointed with its two-star rating but added it had driven pollution incidents down 20 per cent since enacting a pollution incident reduction plan. They said: “We’re investing more than £800 million improving the environment over the next five years – the largest programme of any water company. Technology is already improving our ability to monitor, predict and respond to incidents, giving us the visibility that means we prevent many more pollutions than we deal with.

“We take every incident extremely seriously, and we have one goal – zero pollutions. We will innovate, collaborate and invest until we get there.”

Richard Warneford, Northumbrian’s wastewater director said: “Our rating for 2019 is disappointing as we have a strong track record of protecting and enhancing our environment and are known to be leaders in this area.

“Last year’s assessment saw good performance across the range of measures, with industry leading pollution performance, for example. This was negated by below expected performance with one measure following some specific issues that caused the drop in our position. One issue related to a third party disposing unauthorised industrial material at one of our treatment works and there were also three failures relating to the process around sample testing in the laboratory, which the EA noted as technical in nature and none of which were associated with any environmental impact whatsoever.

“While this is a setback in an area of otherwise consistent strong performance, we are on track to achieve a much-improved rating for 2020 and are likely to maintain or even better our already industry-leading performance on pollution incidents.”

Liv Garfield, chief executive at Severn Trent, which achieved a four-star rating, said: “This is fabulous news given how hard we’ve been working to do the best job we can for our customers and for the environment. We know how much impact we can have on the environment as a business and we have worked extremely hard to minimise that.”

Ian McAulay, chief executive of Southern, said the company was taking bold steps to set its pollution record straight: “We invested an additional £3.2 million during 2019–20 to improve our ability to find and fix leaks alongside an additional £54 million to improve pollution performance.”

Southern was one of the first companies to publish a pollution incident reduction plan that sets out a route to cut pollution incidents to 80 per year by 2025, and zero by 2040.

Ed Mitchell, South West Water’s director of environment, said the company recognised it is “not where we need to be” environmentally. “While we have significantly reduced the most serious pollutions, we know we have much more to do to tackle the overall number of incidents.”

He said a pollution task force has been established and more people have been employed to clean, inspect and maintain assets.

“We are also investing in improved root cause analysis; developing asset specific plans for treatment works, networks and pumping stations; and doing more to encourage customers to help reduce blockages.

“When pollutions happen, as well as responding quickly to minimise any impact on the environment, we look very carefully at what caused them and what we can do to prevent them happening again.”

South West is spending more than £190 million on protecting and improving bathing, shellfish, and river water quality over AMP7.

A United Utilities spokesperson said: “We welcome the EA’s most recent assessment and are pleased to have retained our star rating as a good environmental company. The assessment also acknowledges our industry-leading performance in reducing serious pollution incidents to zero last year and in providing quality data which our customers and regulators trust.”

Ben Roche, director of wastewater at Yorkshire, said the company’s three-star rating was “positive” but added: “We know there is still more to do, and we’ve embarked on an extensive plan of improvement, which was the first in the sector to be published. It included a large investment plan in colleagues, plant and equipment including vehicles to improve further. As a result, we’re seeing continued advances in performance and service in 2020.

“Our services are essential to customers’ daily lives, and the last few months has highlighted this more than ever. We’re continually reviewing and improving our services and implementing changes to make sure our customers can continue to rely on us.”