24% of Thames Water sewage treatment works and storm tanks inspected by the Environment Agency were not complying with regulation, reports Marco Marcelline
Around one quarter of Thames Water sites that were inspected by the Environment Agency (EA) in the past year were found to be breaching their environmental permits on pollution.
The EA carried out over 740 inspections of Thames Water’s wastewater sites over the past year, and found that 24% of them were not complying with their environmental permits.
The EA says that inspections of wastewater assets, such as sewage treatment works and storm tanks, have resulted in Thames Water being notified of over 270 actions they must undertake in order to comply with those permits.
Even minor breaches in permits must be actioned by water companies to ensure operations are compliant with permit conditions. More serious breaches, where there is found to be a higher potential for pollution, can be referred for further investigation which could lead to prosecution or other enforcement action.
Helen Wakeham, EA’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.”
Inspections of Thames Water’s sewage treatment works have resulted in improved maintenance and cleaning of storm tanks with over 500 storm tanks surveyed. Over 150 sites have been identified for cleaning and 65 sites have been cleaned to date with more planned.
The EA says that more regulatory staff, increased monitoring of storm overflows, greater powers, and more inspections are part of a suite of measures to improve the water industry’s environmental performance.
The EA and Natural England have also secured £22.1bn water industry investment commitments for the next five years to upgrade and improve infrastructure to meet tighter environmental standards.
A Thames Water spokesperson told the Echo: “We take our environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and work closely with our regulators.
“Thames Water is dedicated to improving our environmental performance and would note that of the non-compliances found in 2025, almost three-quarters were categorised as of no risk or risk of minor impact. Nonetheless, we are committed to improving all aspects of our compliance.
“Pollutions for the first half of 2025/26 fell by 20% and the latest Event Duration Monitoring returns released last week (26th March) showed discharge events were around three times lower than the previous year with shorter spill durations. We are encouraged that we are seeing early signs of progress from the operational and capital investment we have been making.
“We are committed to improving our infrastructure for our customers, communities and the environment, and that is why we have embarked on the largest ever investment programme, delivering the biggest upgrade to our network in 150 years.”
The news comes as Coppermill Treatment Centre in Walthamstow is currently undergoing a £400m renovation, with the money going towards replacing the pumping station, a new electricity substation, slow sand filter recirculation system, as well as fresh pipes, chambers and control structures both above and below ground.
But amid documented water contamination incidents and ailing on-site infrastructure, the works have been described as a “patch and mend” operation that is happening too late.
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