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More than 80% of the fines dished out by the Environment Agency through prosecutions and other enforcement actions were levied at the water sector in 2022.
That is despite water and wastewater firms being responsible for just 9% of serous pollution incidents, according to Utility Week’s analysis of government figures.
Of the total £4.8 million worth of fines handed out across the year, more than £4 million were issued to water companies.
In total, 15 fines and enforcement undertakings over £100,000 completed in 2022, of which 11 were given to water companies.
The Environment Agency’s most recent review of regulated activities (for 2022) reveals that there were 504 category one and two pollution incidents across the year. Of those, 335 enforcement actions were taken ranging from cautions to prosecutions.
Of the total number of serious incidents, 20% were attributed to permitted or exempt waste management activities; 13% by other sources – which the EA said was mainly transport; 10% by illegal waste activities; 9% by farming; 9% by water and sewerage companies; 8% by non-permitted industry; 5% by industry, mainly food and drink manufacturers; and a further 9% by natural sources or events such as algal blooms.
Responding to Utility Week’s analysis of the figures, waterway campaigner and founder of Stormwater Shepherds Jo Bradley said that the fines represent the disproportionate way that the Environment Agency regulates different sectors.
She said that the impact of runoff from roads is having a worse impact than wastewater treatment activities, but lacks proper regulation and thus there are fewer fines handed out for these offences.
Formerly an Environment Agency employee, Bradley explained that a significant amount of the Agency’s income comes from water companies through permitting, which is then solely spent regulating that sector. However other polluters are less stringently regulated due to the Environment Agency not being funded by those sectors through permitting.
She said that while water companies have been the sole focus of the regulator “for years” it was “really frustrating” that other sources of pollution were not being as stringently regulated and, in the case of highways, rarely even monitored.
For example, Bradley highlighted that there is currently no system of permitting in place for outfalls from highways as there is for wastewater company assets including combined sewer overflows.
That is despite the 18,000 discharge points from roads containing copper, zinc and other hazardous substances which are causing harm to aquatic life in rivers and streams.
Bradley said if these were regulated through permits, the Agency could generate an income and regulate the discharges.
Alternatively, a proportion of the money from water company permitting could, Bradley suggested, be used to regulate other polluting sectors for the end goal of improving the health of the aquatic environment.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We are clear that the number of pollution incidents caused by the water industry is unacceptably high and have secured over £150 million in fines from the water industry since 2015. We are able to raise charge income from our customers but we are bound by rules around the use of this funding which cannot be used for enforcement action.”
They added: “Cleaning up England’s waters also isn’t just about water companies – it includes agriculture, road run-off and urban pollution, as well as the impacts of physical changes such as straightening rivers. We need to tackle these together to address the causes of poor river health and drive the solutions that we all want to see.”
The review showed enforcement action has steadily declined over the past eight years from a high of 364 cases in 2015 to 181 cases in 2022. Enforcement undertakings dipped in 2022 also to 36, down from 80 in 2020. There were 114 prosecutions in 2022, up from 107 the previous year but an overall decline since 2015 when the regulator pursued 208 prosecutions.
The Agency has repeatedly had its environmental protection budget slashed by successive governments from £170 million in 2009/10 to £76 million in 2019/20. It was partially restored to £94 million in 2022. Its total budget that year was £1,650 million with a significant proportion ringfenced for flood resilience and coastal defences.
Despite these cuts, the Environment Agency receives between 70,000 and 100,000 incident reports every year, ranging from pollution to coastal erosion and flooding, and said it responds to every water company incident.
The Agency also focuses regulatory activities on preventing pollution incidents from happening in the first place – with intelligence from incident reports helping inform and prioritise this work to the protect the environment.
Water companies have a legal duty and responsibility to report any breaches of their permits. A failure to self-report will be taken into consideration when enforcement options are being considered by the Environment Agency.
There are a few points here that I believe worthy of mention. They are mainly personal observations, made over the 61 years I have had available to me so far. In this time I have seen our rivers go from disgusting wrecks, to nearly clean enough to drink, then back to the sick state we have managed so far:
1. I frequently coarse fish on rivers so have seen personally how they have been treated. I grew up on Merseyside. In the 1970s the R. Mersey was devoid of fish due to the water containing 0% dissolved oxygen. Contamination with mercury, copper, and organic waste was rife. The evidence for sewage discharge was plain for all to see, (as youths we called the roughly cylindrical brown fish that always swam downstream, “Mersey Trout”). Swimming during that time would land you in hospital.
The river was cleaned up by government legislation forcing polluters to stop acting recklessly. It had salmon running again by the end of the clean up.
2. The R. Wye was similarly cleaned up. However, over the last few years, I have been unfortunate enough to watch the Wye (in Monmouthshire) turn from a beautiful river into a sewer. I never thought Mersey Trout would migrate south to the Wye, but they did and they have remained active now for a few years.
3. News reports from 2022/2023 showed figures that were startling… According to legislation, discharge of untreated sewage is allowed in exceptional circumstances (emergency situations). The figures indicated that, in 2022 there were well over 100 days on which discharges of untreated sewage were flowed to the Wye. Clearly, emergencies are not supposed to occur on over 1/3 of the days in a given year. Emergencies on 1/10 of days would be pushing credulity.
4. Water companies were invited to respond to these reports but they didn’t (not at the end of 2022 anyway). Things may have changed by now, but I suspect not. As ever, the cost of commodities (especially essentials like water and power) are minimised by finding ways to get around costs. Hence the relaxation of what constitutes an emergency situation. I suspect that, if we paid the true cost of these commodities, with them produced ethically, we would have significantly less money in our pockets. But then, we would bequeath a sustainable environment to our progeny, which is nigh on priceless.