United Utilities was behind a fifth of spills in England last year
Water companies will face unlimited fines for polluting rivers and the sea under government plans to protect the environment.
Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, will announce plans next week to scrap the £250,000 cap on civil penalties for companies.
The Times has been told that the government wants to allow the Environment Agency to impose unlimited fines without going through the courts.
Ministers are also expected to announce plans to “ring-fence” any money from fines and penalties and use it to improve the environment under a new “water restoration fund”. The fund would be devoted to projects such as improving habitats and tackling invasive species.
The proposals will be included in a consultation published on Tuesday.
A government source said: “The status quo is not acceptable. We need to sort this out and the water companies need to play their part in the solution.”
The Times Clean It Up campaign has called for better investment and transparency to tackle sewage spills from storm overflows, leading to all of England’s wastewater companies promising a nearly real-time map of spills by the end of the year. It has also demanded beefed-up powers for the Environment Agency.
Single water firm behind a fifth of all pollution spills
A water company serving northwest England dumped the most sewage pollution last year, accounting for almost a fifth of the 302,000 national spills.
The number of storm overflow spills into rivers or the sea fell by a fifth across England. The government said, however, that the discharges were “unacceptable” and water companies could take no credit because it was a dry year.
United Utilities, which covers Liverpool and Manchester, caused 69,000 spills and had the site with the longest-lasting sewage spills in the country. The Plumbland treatment works in Cumbria had 339 spills over the equivalent of 287 days into the River Ellen, home to salmon, sea trout and eels.
Official figures published on Friday show the number of spills from overflows, designed to act as relief valves during heavy rainfall, fell by 19 per cent. They show that 91 per cent of overflows are monitored at present. There is a deadline of the end of the year for 100 per cent to be monitored.
The government said the reduction in spills was due to a dry year, with only 90 per cent of average rainfall and a lengthy drought over the summer.
John Leyland, Environment Agency executive director, said: “The decrease in spills in 2022 is largely down to dry weather, not water company action.”
Companies have argued that the fall was partly due to investment in infrastructure. The industry insisted the direction of travel was “positive news”.
An officer in Water UK, the trade group, said: “This is an important milestone and the fourth consecutive year we have seen a fall in the number of spills from each storm overflow.”
Rebecca Pow, the water minister, said: “The volume of sewage being discharged into our waters is unacceptable and we are taking action to make sure polluters are held to account.”
The Liberal Democrats said Coffey should resign. Sir Ed Davey, the party leader, said: “These figures are a damning verdict on the government’s failure to protect our treasured rivers and lakes. This is a national scandal.”
United Utilities spilt sewage for 425,491 hours during the year and is responsible for nine of the ten worst spillage sites across the country.
Matt Staniek, of the Save Windermere campaign, said: “United Utilities even discharges sewage into Lake Windermere. If sewage is going into Windermere, imagine what’s happening to your local river.”
The duration of United Utilities’ spills was 47 per cent higher than the second worst offender, South West Water, which racked up 290,271 hours.
The worst location for the number of spills was South West Water’s Warfleet Creek Pumping Station in Dartmouth, Devon. It discharged sewage 364 times into the River Dart, which runs off from Dartmoor.
An official at United Utilities said: “We know there is much more to be done. With the largest combined sewer network in the country and 28 per cent more rainfall in our region than the UK average, we have ambitious plans to deliver further improvements.”
John Halsall, chief operating officer at South West Water, said: “We are reducing the use of storm overflows. Our plan is working but there is more to do.”
Every water company recorded a fall in the number and duration of spills between 2021 and last year. Thames Water reported the greatest reduction with a 45 per cent fall from 14,713 to 8,014. The company’s chief executive, Sarah Bentley, has said she is “heartbroken” by the spills and is investing £1.6 billion over the next two years to improve sewage treatment works and sewers.
United Utilities recorded a 15 per cent fall in spills, to 69,245. Wessex Water had the smallest fall, down 7 per cent to 21,878. Southern Water had the smallest reduction in duration of spills, down 9 per cent to 146,819 hours.
Amy Slack, campaigns manager of the River Action charity, said it was “disgraceful” that a daily average of more than 5,000 hours of untreated sewage was released.
Source: The Times
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