Wastewater treatment and pollution control

Clifton Marsh

Protecting the aquatic environment through the treatment of wastewater plays a vital part in improving the quality of rivers, streams and bathing waters in the UK and wider. We are regulated on the quality of the wastewater we discharge by the Environment Agency in England and Wales and SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) in Scotland, and by their counterparts in our international operations.

In our regulated water business in north west England, we achieved 97.27% compliance at our wastewater treatment works. For the wastewater treatment works we run in Scotland we achieved 100% compliance and in Sofia we also achieved 100% compliance.

In our north west England water business, there were no category one pollution incidents (those that are most serious). We caused nine category two incidents, the same as last year and category three pollution incidents increased slightly to 157 in 2007 from 152 in the previous year. Of these, 12 were consented discharges. Prosecutions for 2007 were eight (from 11 in 2006) with fines of £50,000 from £137,000 the previous year.

We have implemented a number of changes to bring about improvements in our pollution incident performance. These include:

  • Identifying risk areas based on previous incidents, location and potential impact and putting in place action plans for each to mitigate the level of risk
  • Bringing in-house the maintenance contract for our wastewater pumping stations, giving us greater visibility and control over our network assets and allowing us to be more pro-active in terms of routine and essential maintenance
  • Fostering a better working relationship with our environmental regulator, the Environment Agency. This is in order to respond to incidents more quickly and mitigate any potential impact to the environment.
  • Reviewing our operational network organisation, given a greater focus by introducing a dedicated network management structure. The review is designed to deliver improved performance in terms of pollution incidents, sewer flooding and overall customer satisfaction.