Anglian Water told to improve after 300 pollution incidents recorded in a year

Anglian Water have been told they need to improve by the Environment Agency (EA) – after 300 pollution incidents and 11 serious incidents from sewerage assets.

The EA said that they had rated Anglian Water as a Two Star company – which means they require improvement – for the third year in a row.

‘We are disappointed that Anglian Water is a 2 star company for the third year in a row’

Sadia Moeed, Area Director for Environment Agency in East Anglia said: "We are disappointed that Anglian Water is a 2 star company for the third year in a row. Where there is evidence of non-compliance we will not hesitate to pursue the water company and take appropriate action.

“As part of our national investment in water company regulation we will increase our regulatory presence across Anglian Water’s sites, contributing to the 4,000 inspections across the country this year, increasing to 10,000 next year."

The EA said that the main reasons for Anglian Water remaining a 2 star company include 40 pollution incidents from sewerage assets per 10,000km. (307 actual incidents) and 11 serious incidents from sewerage assets.

‘We are seeing positive changes in many areas of work’

An Anglian Water spokesperson said: “We take our responsibility to protect, restore and improve our region’s environment incredibly seriously. We know that we must do better on some critical measures of environmental performance, and that our customers want to see a demonstrable difference in the action we take to tackle storm spills and reduce pollutions.

“We’ve drastically changed how we operate to address more effectively the unique and complex challenges facing our region, but we knew it was going to take time for this to be reflected in our environmental performance and an improved EPA rating. We are seeing positive changes in many areas of work, and the recent £100m of additional funding from our shareholders means that we can continue with this strategy at pace.”

Across the country, five water companies are rated as requiring improvement (2 stars), one company is rated as good (3 stars) and three companies achieved 4 stars.

Environment Agency Chair Alan Lovell said: “For the nation to have cleaner rivers and seas, water companies must take responsibility to understand the root cause of their problems.

“It is promising to see some companies starting to accept their responsibilities, but it is evident that the pace of improvement continues to fall short.

“We frequently tighten standards to drive better performance and we have been clear that we expect all companies to achieve, and most critically sustain, better environmental performance.

“As part of this we are taking forward our biggest ever transformation in the way we regulate, recruiting up to 500 additional staff, increasing compliance checks and quadrupling the number of water company inspections by March next year. Through additional resources, tightened EPA metrics and new legal powers, we will be playing our part to ensure the industry steps up on the environment.”