WESSEX Water has been told it "requires improvement" after "five serious pollution incidents", a report from the Environment Agency explained.

The Environment Agency has today (12 July) released its annual report on the environmental performance of England’s nine water and sewerage companies.

Locally, Wessex Water has been described as a company that "requires improvement" for the second year running, according to today’s report.

The company’s performance has failed to improve its two-star rating in the tables (out of a possible four stars), due to five serious pollution incidents.

Overall, there were 110 pollution incidents in 2022, up from 72 incidents the previous year, partly due to spills proactively reported by the company.

A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “Wessex Water is very disappointed to receive a two-star rating, particularly following many years when we were rated four-star. We are a leading performer in all other areas of our business so are determined to restore our environmental performance.

"We are already making significantly increased investments in our sewerage network and using the latest monitoring techniques to identify potential problems before they cause pollution.

"As a consequence of last year’s environmental results, no environmental performance bonuses have been paid.”

Water Minister Rebecca Pow said: “Today’s report shows there is significant work to do to drive the improvements in our rivers and seas that we need to see.

“The government’s Plan for Water is focused on more investment, tougher enforcement and tighter regulation. I am personally committed to driving that forward and demanding more from each and every water company.

“We have also put new regulatory powers in place to allow the Environment Agency to impose sanctions on water companies without always going through the courts. This will be an important tool in its armoury to hold companies to account.”

Despite the rating, the Environment Agency recognises there are positive aspects of the Wessex Water report including the leading company for self-reporting of incidents, a high level of permit compliance and maintaining resilient water supplies against increased demand last year.

Area environment manager for the Environment Agency, Ian Withers said: “Wessex Water’s two-star rating is a consequence of five serious pollution incidents the company was responsible for last year.

“The company accepts that it has more to do to reduce the frequency of pollution events, and our regulation of their operations tells us that Wessex Water is working hard to achieve this.

“We will continue to demand that the company focuses on this priority, and our officers will be undertaking a rigorous programme of inspections that we hope will encourage Wessex Water to deliver improvements to its sewerage networks, treatment processes and overall environmental performance.”

The report comes as the government today published a new law to allow the Environment Agency to impose unlimited civil sanctions on water companies for environmental offences. Read more.

It means it will be quicker and easier for penalties to be imposed, although the most serious cases will still be taken through criminal proceedings.

The report shows some modest improvements to water company star ratings under the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) report in 2022, compared to 2021.

Measured against the Environment Agency’s 4-star rating, four companies have stayed the same, three have improved and two have got worse.

Since 2011, the Environment Agency has used the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) to rate each company in England from 1 star to 4 star.

The rating takes into account performance on environmental commitments such as pollution incidents and treatment work compliance.

Last year an updated reporting approach was introduced, with revised metrics and tightened performance thresholds.

The results show that although there have been some improvements, all water companies need to go further and faster. Environment Agency chair Alan Lovell said: “Regulators, water companies, government, eNGOs and many others all want the same thing: better environmental outcomes, including cleaner rivers and seas. We need to work together and take collective responsibility to achieve it.

“While there have been some modest improvements, it is unacceptable to still be seeing this level of pollution. We have seen a distinct culture shift from the water industry in recent months and that is welcome – but that must translate to profound, long-term change.

“The Environment Agency will play its part by transforming the way we regulate the sector. We welcome this week’s announcement on unlimited penalties which will also improve our enforcement powers.”

The Environment Agency has also set out how it will:

• Create a bigger specialised workforce to focus solely on water company regulation. By autumn this year nearly 100 officers will be trained in carrying out more detailed audits of water companies to quickly identify issues and put improvement actions in place

• Significantly increase compliance checks for every company – making sure they are sticking to the permits agreed with the Environment Agency

• Recruit more data specialists to make better use of analytics and technology 

• Transform huge quantities of monitoring data into stronger regulatory intelligence.

That includes using data-driven analytics to map monitoring data against rainfall to detect potential dry weather operation of storm overflows – known as ‘dry spills’.

It means the Environment Agency can quickly direct new specialist officers to any sites at risk and stop it from happening.

Since 2015 the Environment Agency’s prosecutions against water companies have secured fines of over £150 million.

In 2022 the Environment Agency concluded nine prosecutions against water and sewerage companies with fines of more than £4 million.