{"id":15567,"date":"2025-07-23T08:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T08:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/15567\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T08:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T08:54:12","slug":"no-wonder-englands-water-needs-cleaning-up-most-sewage-discharges-arent-even-classified-as-pollution-incidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/15567\/","title":{"rendered":"No wonder England\u2019s water needs cleaning up \u2013 most sewage discharges aren\u2019t even classified as pollution incidents"},"content":{"rendered":"

England\u2019s privatised water industry may one day be considered a textbook case study of failed corporate responsibility, regulation and governance. The Cunliffe review<\/a>, the recent report into England\u2019s privatised water industry, concluded that the financial regulator, OfWat, needs to be disbanded<\/a> and a new water regulator will be introduced. <\/p>\n

For that to work effectively, better pollution monitoring and more clearly defined pollution incident criteria are essential. While politicians and water companies have claimed to be reducing pollution incidences, they might not strictly be tackling sources of pollution, so communications<\/a> must be carefully scrutinised for disinformation.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s environment minister Steve Reed MP has described the water industry as \u201cbroken\u201d<\/a>. The public have rising water bills<\/a>. Water companies owe over \u00a360 billion<\/a> in debts and have left the country with uncertain water security<\/a> in the face of climate change.<\/p>\n

The Environment Agency (EA) in England recently announced<\/a> that serious pollution incidents in 2024 rose by 60% to 75 from 47 in the previous year. The EA classifies pollution incidents using a four-point scale called the common incident classification scheme. Trained EA officers consider the evidence reported via their incident hotline<\/a> to assess its credibility and severity. <\/p>\n

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Category 1 is for major incidents, 2 for significant, 3 for minor incidents and 4 for no impact. Category 1 and 2 typically involve visible signs of dead fish floating. For salmon, if more than 10 adult or 100 young fish are dead, this is category 1. With fewer than ten adult and 100 young fish dead, it\u2019s category 2. <\/p>\n

No dead fish, no serious problem? The EA can also record damage on protected habitats as \u201cpollution incidents\u201d but these are harder to substantiate without investigative research that takes time and money.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Numbers of Catagory 1-3 (left) and Category 1-2 (right) Pollution incidents recorded in England between 2016 and 2014.
\n Environment Agency data<\/p>\n

Last year, more than 450,000 sewage discharges<\/a> were recorded by event duration monitors. These are devices fitted to the end of overflow pipes that indicate when and for how long they have been discharging. <\/p>\n

These discharges represent 3.6 million hours of untreated sewage going into our rivers and coasts. These contain chemical contaminants including pharmaceuticals, detergents and human pathogens. Only 75 incidents were recorded as serious or significant in 2024. Another 2,726 were classed as minor. <\/p>\n

So lots of sewage discharges are not being classified as pollution incidents, despite containing pollutants. The EA advises its investigating officers to \u201crecord substantiated incidents that result in no environmental impact, or where the impact cannot be confirmed, as a category 4\u201d.<\/p>\n

The EA has been criticised for turning up late to 74%<\/a> of category 1 and 2 pollution incidents and for being pressured to ignore<\/a> low-level pollution \u2013 all claims that they have denied<\/a>. However, they admit they are constrained by finances. Any new regulator must be adequately resourced and independent. <\/p>\n

\"pollution<\/a><\/p>\n

Pollution isn\u2019t always classified as an official pollution incident.
\n YueStock\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n

In their recent report<\/a> into pollution incidences, the EA states that they respond to all category 1 and 2 (serious and significant) water industry incidents and will be increasing their attendance at category 3 (minor) incidents. They highlight that more inspections will identify more issues. This shows some acceptance that the more incidents they attend, the more would be substantiated or recorded appropriately. <\/p>\n

Most sewage discharges would not have been reported to, or recorded by, the EA as pollution incidents because they were permitted discharges from combined stormwater overflows. Water companies are allowed to discharge untreated wastewater under exceptional rainfall or snowfall conditions to prevent sewage backing up through the pipes. <\/p>\n

Extra water flow<\/a> in rivers from rainfall is meant to dilute chemical contaminants in wastewater. However, some discharges can last days or weeks<\/a>. The EA is currently investigating<\/a> whether water companies have been breaching their permits and discharging untreated wastewater when there is low or even no rainfall. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Numbers and hours of sewage discharges in England recorded by event duration monitors between 2016 and 2024 (low values before 2020 represent fewer monitors fitted to stormwater overflows).<\/p>\n

What counts as pollution?<\/p>\n

The UN classifies pollution<\/a> as \u201cpresence of substances and energy (for example, light and heat) in environmental media (air, water, land) whose nature, location, or quantity produces undesirable environmental effects\u201d. This definition differs markedly from the EA\u2019s working definition of pollution incidents. <\/p>\n

Many sewage discharges containing low concentrations of pollutants won\u2019t kill fish but might still be harmful to fish larvae or small insects, for example. <\/p>\n

However, the broad picture from EA data is that invertebrate communities at least are in a better state<\/a> than they were three decades ago before wastewater treatment plants were upgraded following the EU\u2019s Urban Wastewater Directive<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Some pollutants bioaccumulate through the food chain, so they become concentrated in top predators such as orcas<\/a>. Some chemicals mimic reproductive hormones even in low concentrations and can feminise fish<\/a>, for example. High levels of nutrients from agriculture and sewage in rivers can cause fungal diseases<\/a> in seagrass meadows. <\/p>\n

Other families of chemicals build up in wildlife and people, such as persistent \u201cforever chemicals\u201d<\/a>, much of which comes from wastewater discharges<\/a>. Continued discharges of antibiotics<\/a> into waterways might not be classified as pollution incidents but still pose a substantial risk to human and ecosystem health through bacteria developing antibiotic resistance<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The government has just committed to cut sewage pollution by 50% by December 2029<\/a> based on 2024 data. But it\u2019s not yet clear whether these involve cutting the frequency of discharges, the duration or both. <\/p>\n

This data could also be manipulated so that a large number of small discharges can be consolidated into one official discharge event. Currently, the volume of discharges from stormwater overflows isn\u2019t known. Without this vital data we can\u2019t ascertain the risk posed by their contaminants.<\/p>\n

\"Imagine<\/p>\n

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