The Environment Agency has called a further reduction in water sector pollution incidents in its annual report on environmental performance in 2014 for the nine water and sewerage companies in England, saying that further improvements are needed in 2015.

Commenting on pollution incidents – described as “usually caused by loss of control”, the report says the Agency saw a welcome reduction in 2014 in the number of serious pollution incidents (categories 1 and 2) to 61 following the disappointing performance in 2013 when the sector was the cause of 88 serious pollution incidents. However, the Agency said 61 serious incidents is similar to levels seen in 2008 to 2010 and the expectation is for further reductions.

In 2014 there were only 4 category 1 serious pollution incidents, the lowest ever number recorded for the sector.

While the numbers of serious incidents across the sector fell markedly between 2005 and 2010, 2011 saw a sharp rise which appeared to be brought back under control in 2012. However numbers increased again for most companies in the sector in 2013 to 88, an almost 50% increase compared to 2012. The rise in 2013 marked the continuation of an increasing trend since 2010, a move away from the EA’s expectation of a trend toward zero by 2020.

Following the increase in serious incidents in 2013 the Agency requested each company to produce an action plan to understand the increase and reverse the rise. No one root cause was identified for the increase in 2013, with causes varying between companies. Key factors which contributed were inadequate monitoring and management and shortcomings in risk assessment, operational practice and staff culture.

Total pollution incidents for 2014, at 2,358, have reduced compared to 2013 – the report states:

“The sector appears to have turned the corner from the record high in 2012. However category 3 incidents remain high compared to the numbers observed before 2010 and further improvements are needed by the sector. We want to see a further reduction in incidents from all companies in 2015.”

Self reporting of incidents remains static at 66% and must reach 75% by 2020

On self reporting of incidents -– where the water companies notify the Agency about their incidents before a member of the public or third party does – the report says that in 2014, as over the last few years, the average self-reporting remains static at 66% for the sector.

The range for individual companies is variable (42% to 77%) and the EA has told all companies it expects their self-reporting to reach 75% by 2020, commenting:

“ Clearly some have more to do than others to achieve this.”

Compliance with licences and permits highest ever achieved by the sector

On compliance with numeric waste water discharge permits, the report says that encouragingly, was 98.9% in 2014 -  the highest ever numeric permit compliance achieved by the sector.

Compared with the 97.4% achieved in 2013 when 90 sewage treatment works failed to comply with their numeric permit conditions, 40 sewage treatment works out of the 3,493 assessed failed to comply with their numeric permit conditions in 2014.

Compliance with other licences and permits in 2014 was generally high, with only 10 contraventions of abstraction or impoundment licences recorded in 2014, out of a total of 1,287 licences held by the water companies. The report says these 10 licence contraventions were at sites owned by 3 of the water companies and all were of a minor nature, causing little or no environmental impact.

New Environmental Performance Assessment thresholds set for AMP6

2011 saw the introduction of the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) as a tool for comparing performance between water companies and across years. In it the Agency uses indicators to provide a comparable overview of performance across the 9 water companies associated with:

• reducing pollution incidents
• company reporting of incidents
• complying with discharge permits
• managing and disposing of sewage sludge
• delivering environmental improvement schemes

The current EPA indicators were set for the duration of AMP5 which ran from April 2010 to March 2015. New thresholds have been set for the AMP6 period 2015 to 2020.

Performance expectations set by the environmental regulator include:

• reduce category 1 and 2 pollution incidents, trending towards zero by 2020
• trend to minimise all pollution incidents (category 1 to 3) by 2020 with at least a third reduction compared to 2012 figures
• achieve high levels of self-reporting of pollution incidents with at least 75% of incidents self-reported by 2020
• ensure a plan is in place to achieve 100% compliance for all licences and permits
• manage sewage sludge treatment and re-use in a way that does not cause pollution plan environmental improvement schemes

The majority of the water companies have translated these expectations into Performance Commitments and associated Outcome Delivery Incentives as part of their AMP6 Business Plans.

Overall environmental performance best result since 2011

Concluding with overall environmental performance, the report says that the EPA for 2014 reflects an improved performance from 2013 and is the best result for the sector since the EPA was first introduced in 2011. The existing EPA thresholds will be used to report 2015 performance in the summer of 2016. New thresholds will apply for the 2016 performance year to be reported in 2017.

Click here to read the report in full