Three UK Private Water Companies Face $214 Million In Fines For Years Of Massive Sewage Releases

Thames, Yorkshire and Northumbrian Water will be fined a record £168m between them for a “catalogue of failure” over illegal sewage discharges into rivers and the sea after the industry regulator’s biggest investigation yet. The water regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, has proposed penalties of £104m for Thames, £47m for Yorkshire and £17m for Northumbrian for failing to manage their wastewater treatment works and networks, including their operation of storm overflows. It said it was the first of more crackdowns to come.

Ofwat found all three companies had “routinely” released sewage into rivers and seas, failing to ensure that discharges of sewage from storm overflows occur only in exceptional circumstances, which had “resulted in harm to the environment and their customers”. The watchdog also found a strong correlation between high spill levels and operational issues at wastewater treatment sites; a failure to upgrade assets; and said companies had been “slow to understand the scope of their obligations relating to limiting pollution from storm overflows and failed to ensure that they had in place the necessary information, processes and oversight”.

High levels of illegal sewage discharges correlated with treatment works that had not been properly upgraded or maintained by the water companies. Nearly 70% of Thames’s treatment plants had operational problems, Ofwat said, and 16% of its storm overflows were operating in breach of their permits and therefore illegally. At Yorkshire, 16% of sewage works had operational problems and 45% of its storm overflows were were in breach of their permits.

The £104m fine for Thames, which equates to 9% of the annual turnover of its wastewater operation, comes as it grapples to secure its financial future after being put into special measures by Ofwat. The UK’s biggest water company, which has 16 million customers in London and the Thames Valley, has a £15.2bn debt mountain and has said it has enough cash to continue trading until at least May 2025. If it fails to secure fresh investment it could be placed into a special, government-handled administration.

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/06/water-companies-record-fine-sewage-thames-water-ofwat