THE ENVIRONMENT Agency (EA) has called on Severn Trent Water to take 530 actions across its wastewater network, including sewage treatment tanks and storm tanks, writes Andres De Miguel.
The EA’s Water Industry Regulation teams carried out 1,800 inspections of Severn Trent’s wastewater sites and, whilst 81 per cent of them were compliant with environmental permits, a third led to improvements being needed.
Most permit breaches related to emission limits, operations in emergency conditions, accessible sampling point locations and monitors found in incorrect permitted locations.
Inspections are aimed at preventing pollution, increasing compliance by water companies and driving operating behaviours to protect the environment.
Geoff Craig, Water Company Regulation Manager at the Environment Agency, sad: “We already carry out more inspections of Severn Trent Water than any other water company in England, due to it large number of wastewater facilities.
“Our new regulation teams have been working tirelessly, completing a record number of inspections, to identify breaches in their permits and hold them to account.
“While Severn Trent Water is an industry leader for its environmental performance, we are not allowing it rest on its laurels.”
“Over the past year we have been attending more minor pollution incidents to make sure Severn Trent responds quickly and works to reduce the number of incidents.”
Helen Wakeham, Environment Agency’s director for water, said: “In our role as regulators of the water industry, we are changing how we operate – with better data, our largest ever enforcement workforce and greater powers to do our job effectively.
“Inspections are a vital preventative measure, with our teams nationally issuing over 3,000 actions to water companies, including repairing sewage works and upgrading their infrastructure.
“Together, this will drive meaningful improvements in performance, hold persistent offenders to account and ultimately create a cleaner water environment.”
On top of increasing the number of yearly inspections, the Environment Agency has also hired more regulatory staff and increased its monitoring of storm overflows to improve the water industry’s environmental performance.
The extra data and information gathered from the agency’s efforts will also allow it to better identify trends in water company operations and non-compliance, helping it organise its regulatory approach going forward.
Additionally, the Environment Agency and Natural England have secured £22.1billion in water industry infrastructure investment commitments, with Severn Trent pledging £15bn over the next five years.
