The size of fines for water company pollution incidents has been growing steadily over the last two years following a fundamental change in the legal framework. This report on the environmental performance of the water comes close on the heels of another major company fine for Severn Trent. 

Environmental Performance Assessment

The Environment Agency ‘is looking for water companies’ serious pollution incidents to “trend towards zero” by 2020, according to its annual Environmental Performance Assessment for all nine of England’s water and sewerage companies. The Agency introduced the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) in 2011 as a tool for comparing performance between water companies and across years, using 6 indicators to provide a meaningful and comparable overview of performance across the 9 water companies.

The indicators measure performance associated with:

• reducing pollution incidents and increasing company reporting of incidents
• complying with discharge permits
• managing the use and disposal of sewage sludge
• delivering environmental improvement schemes 

Click here to download the full report.