The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat all failed in their separate duties to monitor unlawful sewage dumping, according to a four-year investigation by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), which ensures public bodies comply with environmental rules.
Labour’s independent review of the water sector to fix the sewage crisis – in which the fate of regulators will be a key issue – is likely to take note of the investigation.
The dire state of Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas is causing anger among the public who are due to find out how much their water bills will go up by, as firms raise money to tackle sewage leaks.
Regulators including the Environment Agency and Ofwat have been criticised as “toothless”, and blamed for failing to prevent water companies from dumping huge volumes of sewage into waterways.
The law states they are only allowed to do this during periods of exceptional rainfall, but firms have repeatedly been accused of dumping outside of these circumstances; water companies in England collectively discharged untreated waste 464,056 times last year.
It uncovered multiple instances where Defra, Ofwat and the EA have failed to comply with their duties in providing guidance, permits and enforcement for the use of CSOs in line with the law.
Meanwhile, Ofwat failed to issue enforcement orders against rule-breaking companies and the EA issued permits to water companies that were insufficient to ensure compliance with the law.
“What the OEP”s announcement has clarified is that much of the storm sewage pollution that is plaguing English rivers would not be occurring had Government and regulators done their jobs properly,” said Guy Linley-Adams, solicitor for WildFish.
Charles Watson, the chair and founder of River Action, said: “The OEP’s findings offer yet another devastating verdict of the total failure of environmental regulation in our country. It is nothing short of scandalous that our environmental regulators and the Government department that funds and instructs them, have failed to take proper account of environmental law in their policing of the water industry.
'Thames Water sent me a £10k bill for a leaking pipe - I don't know where it is'
Read More“Given this appalling failure of law enforcement, the very bodies responsible for protecting our rivers instead of imposing meaningful deterrents to prevent river pollution are essentially providing the water industry with an incentive to carry on polluting at will.”
In October, the Government announced an independent review of the sector, saying it will amount to the biggest shake-up of the industry since privatisation. Ofwat could be abolished under the review.
This includes a series of enforcement notices issued by Ofwat against water companies for sewage spills, which could result in three firms being fined a collective £168m.
On Thursday Ofwat will outline how much water companies will be allowed to increase their bills by over the next five years to help tackle the sewage crisis.
Ofwat has indicated it will allow bill increases, but not at the level requested by water companies.
“We’ve also made significant progress in addressing the issues identified by the OEP and are consulting on updates to our permitting approach and regulatory framework for storm overflows.”
The regulator has launched an enforcement investigation into all wastewater companies, which could result in firms being fined millions.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Once again the truth about the Conservatives’ utter failure to regulate the water industry is laid bare. The result of their catastrophic policies has left record levels of sewage pollution in Britain’s rivers, lakes, and seas.
“As part of our Plan for Change, the Labour government has acted decisively to place water companies under special measures, with new powers to ban bonuses and bring criminal charges against polluting water bosses.”
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