Anglian Water told to improve after pollution incidents

Anglian Water has been told it needs to improve on its pollution control by the environment agency.

The water company, which supplies Norfolk, has been given a rating of two because of incidents of pollution.

The annual report rates each company in England from 1 star to 4 star, based on a range of measures including serious pollution incidents, pollution per km of sewer pipes and compliance with permits.

Anglian Water has been rated as 2 star (requiring improvement). The report also found that serious incidents continued to plateau although more than half were due to Anglian Water and Thames Water.

Area Deputy Directors Simon Hawkins and Norman Robinson of the Environment Agency in East Anglia, and Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire said:

“We work very closely with everyone we regulate to ensure standards are met. Anglian Water are no different and it will be through close working and high levels of scrutiny that we achieve improvements. We are disappointed that Anglian Water is falling below the required standards we expect. As a result the company has dropped to a 2 star performance rating and improvement is required.

"We are taking a number of actions to toughen our regulatory action and challenge them to address areas where performance needs to be improved.

"There were 12 serious pollution incidents involving Anglian Water last year; action has been taken in some cases and others are still being investigated further. In the last 12 months (between Sept 2019 and Sept 2020), Anglian Water has been prosecuted four times and ordered to pay more than £198,000 in fines. In addition they also have paid £130,000 in Enforcement Undertakings, and £145,000 in Variable Monetary Penalties.

"This demonstrates that where regulations are breached we will take appropriate action in line with our enforcement and sanctions policy."

An Anglian Water spokesperson said:

"We're disappointed to have recorded a two-star rating in 2019, but our Pollution Incident Reduction Plan has already driven a 20% reduction in pollutions this year.

"We're investing more than £800 million improving the environment over the next five years - the largest programme of any water company. Technology is already improving our ability to monitor, predict and respond to incidents, giving us the visibility that means we prevent many more pollutions than we deal with.

"We take every incident extremely seriously, and we have one goal - zero pollutions. We will innovate, collaborate and invest until we get there."