Watchdog asks water companies in England to clean up their behavior | Business

Water distribution companies in England were asked to put their affairs in order after their environmental watchdog had described their performance as "simply unacceptable".

Southern Water and Yorkshire Water have been distinguished by many serious pollution incidents, in which wastewater is released into bathing waters.

Both companies and South West Water received only two stars from the Environment Agency (EA), indicating an "unacceptable performance level".

The evaluation of the nine privatized water supply and sanitation companies in England revealed that only one of these companies, Northumbrian Water, was achieving the expected results.

Emma Howard Boyd, President of EA, said, "The performance of 2018 was simply unacceptable … rather than improving, most companies' performance has deteriorated, reversing the trend to progressive improvement since we introduced the badessment of environmental performance in 2011.

"Serious pollution that damages the local environment, threatens wildlife and, in the worst case, endangers the public, has increased."

Although the report badessed last year's performance, Howard Boyd said that nothing she had seen so far this year indicated that any of the companies were making dramatic improvements.

She said the agency is tightening its inspections and increasing its audits of water distribution companies due to poor performance.

On Tuesday, the water regulator, Ofwat, announced measures likely to restrict payments to shareholders if the companies were not financially resilient.

Four companies – Severn Trent, Southern Water, Wesbad Water and Yorkshire Water – recorded an increase in the number of serious pollution incidents compared to 2017.

"The sector needs to improve significantly to meet our expectations for severe and total pollution," the report says.

Southern has been heavily criticized for its performance in the past and is at the center of an EA-led criminal investigation into the failures of a sewage treatment plant that polluted rivers and streams. beaches of southern England.

Ofwat sentenced the company to a fine of £ 126 million last month for failures, which the watchdog said was "shocking".

Last week, the Surfers Against Sewage campaign group released data showing that Southern has polluted some of the UK's most visited beaches with untreated sewage and rainwater more than 150 times in six weeks.

The environmental badessment report also criticized South West Water for its poor performance, giving it a red rating for pollution incidents.

The report states: "We expect companies that they avoid serious pollution … [which] lead to the release of harmful substances into the air, soil or water, and some may cause significant environmental damage. "

Incidents in the first category have a serious or persistent impact on the environment, people or property and can, for example, lead to the death of many fish. Category 2 incidents have a smaller but significant impact. In 2018, the number of serious pollution (categories one and two) increased from 52 to 56, including 48 concerning the company's sewage networks and wastewater treatment facilities.

It is unlikely that water utilities will achieve their goals of zeroing serious pollution incidents by next year. Toby Willison, executive director of operations at EA, said: "Water companies must put their affairs in order. People expect water companies to improve the environment and not pollute the rivers.

"We will continue to challenge CEOs to improve the performance of their business and we will take strong and appropriate enforcement action. "

Yorkshire Water has stated that the increase in the number of its serious pollution incidents "absolutely did not reflect the company's ambition to protect the environment" and was "far from the standards required to achieve its goal of becoming a leader in the sector. ".

The company said it took steps to improve its performance.

Southern said: "Over the last two years, our pollution control team has changed dramatically and this is reflected in the much higher level of self-reporting as new systems and processes enter in force.

"We know we have more to do. With increased staff training, we are now identifying and solving problems faster and an improvement program at all of our high impact sites is progressing satisfactorily. "