Anglian Water (AW) has once again been fined for breaking the law. This time it was for discharging six million litres of raw sewage into the River Great Ouse for 23 hours. That’s enough, according to the Environment Agency (EA), to fill the equivalent of two Olympic-sized swimming pools. This news comes on the heels of a new poll which reveals a majority of voters support the idea of threatening water company bosses with criminal prosecution if their firms pollute rivers.
The survey, conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for the i newspaper, found that 72% of respondents were in favour of such action, while only 5% opposed it. The results were consistent across political parties and voting blocs.
“It really is time jail sentences were introduce for water company directors,” agrees Feargal Sharkey, former pop star and now high-profile campaigner to clear up Britain’s waterways. He says as fines haven’t worked, prosecuting the executives themselves is now the only solution. Currently, companies like Anglian Water are held liable for pollution, but individual executives are rarely prosecuted.
Environment Agency: jail directors
It is not only the public who would like courts to impose jail sentences on water company executives in serious and deliberate pollution incidents. As reported by East Anglia Bylines last summer, in a shock move, Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency, prefaced a report into all nine water and sewage companies in England with the same call, adding they should also be struck off as directors to prevent them moving to another company.
The poll also found that 45% of the public is dissatisfied with the current environmental condition of Britain’s waterways, while only 16% are satisfied. A majority believed that water companies, local and national governments, and independent regulators should all be held responsible for cleaning up rivers. These stark results come after Redfield & Wilton interviewed 1,500 adults earlier this week.
River Action chairman Charles Watson said it was time for politicians to take notice of the public mood. “Our elected politicians need to wake up fast to the fact this is going to be a major issue when votes get cast at the next General Election,” he warned.
Some discharges are legal
In many cases, the discharge of sewage into waterways is legal, as water companies have environmental permits specific to each treatment works. Due to surface water in wet weather draining into the sewer system, these permits allow them to discharge sewage through ‘combined sewer overflows’ (CSOs) after “unusually heavy rainfall”. CSOs were developed to prevent sewage back-up into homes when the amount of water entering the system exceeds its ability to cope.
However, if a works discharges outside the parameters of any permit, it is illegal. Severe breaches of these permits can result in criminal charges, but such cases are often lengthy and expensive, which is why the most recent fines levied are for cases going back five years or more.
In the case of Anglian Water, the breach of their permit took place in May 2017 – almost six years ago. The discharge from the emergency overflow at the pumping station into the River Great Ouse killed 5,000 fish and was found to have stretched 12 kilometres downstream. The firm pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay a £510,000 fine and £50,000 in costs. There was never a question of custodial sentences for any AW directors.
The reason individuals are rarely prosecuted is that while the Crown Prosecution Service must consider the public interest when deciding whether to charge someone with a criminal offence, it must also weigh the likelihood of securing an actual conviction.
Current civil penalties are too low
For the most part, the EA relies on civil penalties. This system allows sanctions to be imposed more often without drawn-out court cases. Currently, fines in these cases are capped at £250,000. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced plans to raise this to £250m while under the leadership of the last Environment Secretary, Ranil Jayawardena. However, the current Environment Secretary, Thérèse Coffey – MP for Suffolk Coastal – is reportedly now backing away from this measure.
Ross Matthewman, Head of Policy and Campaigns at the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health said yesterday in response, “At a time when drastic intervention, tougher penalties and stricter enforcement is necessary, there is real concern that water companies will be let off the hook once again, and we would urge the Secretary of State to change course.”
2022: water companies performance is worst yet
Last year’s EA report showed that overall, in 2021, the performance of the water companies fell to the lowest level since the Environmental Performance Assessment tool was introduced in 2011.
EA’s Howard Boyd says: “It’s appalling that water companies’ performance on pollution has hit a new low. Water quality won’t improve until water companies get a grip on their operational performance. For years people have seen executives and investors handsomely rewarded while the environment pays the price.
“Company directors let this happen. We plan to make it too painful for them to continue like this. The amount a company can be fined for environmental crimes is unlimited, but fines currently handed down by the courts often amount to less than a Chief Executive’s salary. We need courts to impose much higher fines. Investors should no longer see England’s water monopolies as a one-way bet.”
A list of Anglian Water fines for environmental violations since 2010
2010 – £22,000
2010 – £27,000
2011 – £35,000
2011 – £18,000
2011 – £14,000
2011 – £32,000
2011 – £35,000
2013 – £20,000
2013 – £20,000
2013 – £14,000
2013 – £14,000
2014 – £25,000
2014 – £25,000
2016 – £100,000
2017 – £60,000
2017 – £30,000
2017 – £100,000
2017 – £100,000
2017 – £20,000
2019 – £146,000
2020 – £100,000
2020 – £130,000
2020 – £22,000
2020 – £22,000
2020 – £8,000
2021 – £50,000
2022 – £300,000
2022 – £50,000
2022 – £350,000
2022 – £871,000
2023 – £560,000
The fines are getting bigger because the incidents are getting worse. In October 2022, Anglian Water was ordered to pay back £8.5 million to customers for falling significantly below performance in key target areas.
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