Three water companies face a total penalty of £168 million following a sewage investigation.
OFWAT Issues Financial Penalties
The Water Services Regulation Authority (OFWAT), the body responsible for regulating the privatised water and sewerage industry England and Wales, has proposed that three water companies will be fined a total of £168 million.
This imposed fine is due to a failure of these companies in managing their wastewater treatment works and networks. It’s a good step towards helping to prioritise our environment, by penalising those who put it in danger.
Findings
Ofwat found that these companies:
- Failed to ensure that discharges of untreated wastewater from storm overflows only occur in exceptional circumstances
- Had a strong correlation between high spill levels and operational issues at their wastewater treatment sites, indicating improper operation and maintenance
- Failed to upgrade necessary assets to meet the needs of their local areas
- Been slow to understand the range of their obligations relating to limiting pollution from storm overflows, and failed to ensure they could properly comply with those requirements
- Thames Water – 67% of its wastewater treatment works with FFT permits had capacity and operational issues. 16% of its storm overflows associated with wastewater treatment works were in breach
- Yorkshire Water – 16% of its wastewater treatment works with FFT permit had capacity or operational issues. 45% of its storm overflows associated with its wastewater treatment works were found to be in breach
- Northumbrian Water – 3% of its wastewater treatment works with FFT permits had capacity or operational issues. 9% of its storm overflows associated with its wastewater treatment works were in breach
Proposed Penalties
Of these proposed penalties, Thames Water is to be fined £104 million, Yorkshire Water fined £47 million, and Northumbrian Water £17 million.
Ofwat is also consulting on proposed enforcement orders to require each company to rectify the problems identified above. The fined companies will not be able to recover the money for any proposed penalties or additional maintenance that is required from their customers.
“Ofwat has uncovered a catalogue of failure by Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water in how they ran their sewage works and this resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows. Our investigation has shown how they routinely released sewage into our rivers and seas, rather than ensuring that this only happens in exceptional circumstances as the law intends.
“The level of penalties we intend to impose signals both the severity of the failings and our determination to take action to ensure water companies do more to deliver cleaner rivers and seas.
“These companies need to move at pace to put things right and meet their obligations to protect customers and the environment. They also need to transform how they look after the environment and to focus on doing better in the future.
“Looking to the future we want transform companies’ performance under our new price control that starts in April next year, so we reduce spills from sewage overflows by 44 per cent by 2030 compared to 2021 levels.” – David Black, Chief Executive of Ofwat