Yorkshire Water faces a mammoth £47 million fine from Ofwat.
The water regulator today announced the results of its biggest ever investigation into the country’s water companies.
Yorkshire Water was one of three that failed to manage their wastewater treatment works adequately, it said.
The others were Thames Water and Northumbrian Water.
The news comes after the Stray Ferret reported calls yesterday for Yorkshire Water chief executive Nicola Shaw to refuse her £371,000 annual bonus.
Ofwat's plans to collectively impose penalties totalling £168 million on the three companies will now go to public consultation.
The regulator said in a statement this morning that all three companies:
Failed to ensure that discharges of untreated wastewater from storm overflows occur only in exceptional circumstances, which has resulted in harm to the environment and their customers.
Shown a strong correlation between high spill levels and operational issues at wastewater treatment sites which points to these companies not having properly operated and maintained their wastewater treatment works.
It added the companies also failed to upgrade assets, where necessary, to ensure they meet the changing needs of the local areas they serve.
Ofwat also concluded the three water bodies had been “slow to understand the scope of their obligations” relating to limiting pollution from storm overflows, and failed to ensure that they had the necessary information, processes and oversight in place in order to properly comply with those requirements.
David Black, Ofwat chief executive, said:
Ofwat has uncovered a catalogue of failure by Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water in how they ran their sewage works and this resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows. Our investigation has shown how they routinely released sewage into our rivers and seas, rather than ensuring that this only happens in exceptional circumstances as the law intends.
The level of penalties we intend to impose signals both the severity of the failings and our determination to take action to ensure water companies do more to deliver cleaner rivers and seas.
The body did add, however, the scale of breaches between the companies varied.
Because of these findings, Ofwat said it is also consulting on proposed enforcement orders, which will require each company to rectify the problems the body has identified.
A 163-page document by Ofwat, which gives notice of the body’s proposal to issue the financial penalty and an enforcement order, said Yorkshire Water’s “failings” relate to management, operation, maintenance and performance of its wastewater treatment works and the collecting networks that feed into them.
Having reviewed this information, we have identified that most of Yorkshire Water's wastewater treatment works have storm overflows associated with them that spill regularly to the environment – over 80% have spilled on 20 or more occasions in at least one of the last four years and over 50% have spilled on more than 60 occasions.
Yorkshire Water has failed to demonstrate that these spills resulted from exceptional circumstances and, in most cases, has failed to properly consider whether cost beneficial solutions existed to address these problems.
Ofwat added 16% of Yorkshire Water’s wastewater treatment works, with flow to full treatment permits, were found to have capacity or operational problems.
In addition, 45% of storm overflows associated with Yorkshire Water’s wastewater treatment works were found to be in breach.
These companies need to move at pace to put things right and meet their obligations to protect customers and the environment. They also need to transform how they look after the environment and to focus on doing better in the future.
Looking to the future we want transform companies’ performance under our new price control that starts in April next year, so we reduce spills from sewage overflows by 44% by 2030, compared to 2021 levels.
Thames Water faces a £104 million fine, while Northumbrian Water could be hit with a £17 million fine.
Ofwat has the power to impose financial penalties up to the value of 10% of the company’s turnover.
In Yorkshire Water’s case, the £47m fine equates to 7% of its turnover.
Companies will not be able to recover the money for any proposed penalties from customers, Ofwat said, adding it will ensure that customers are not charged twice where additional maintenance is required.
The body also said the proposed penalties are the first set of outcomes following the investigation, adding it will “continue to work as quickly as possible” on eight further cases.
The Stray Ferret contacted Yorkshire Water for comment. A spokesperson said:
We take our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously. Last year, we apologised for not acting quickly enough and announced our £180 million programme to reduce discharges from our storm overflows before April 2025.
We are disappointed with Ofwat’s response to their investigation into our wastewater treatment networks. Since the start of this process in November 2021, we have cooperated fully with the investigation, and we will continue to seek clarity on their draft penalty and enforcement notice. We will be responding to the notice by September 10.
We and our customers care deeply about river health, and we want to provide reassurance that we have already taken considerable action to improve.
For the past two years we have been industry leading for our wastewater treatment works compliance, we have more robust processes and procedures in place, and we have finished work at 10 storm overflows with 44 on site, and 66 due to start soon as part of our £180m investment programme.
Our business plan for 2025-2030, which is currently being reviewed by Ofwat, proposes our largest environmental investment of £7.8bn.
Figures published by the Environment Agency in March showed storm overflow spill data more than doubled for the river Nidd and the Ure in 2023 .
The Nidd saw a 120% increase in hours of sewage spills from the year prior, while the Ure saw a 166% increase from the same period.
You can comment on Ofwat's proposals until 5pm on Tuesday, September 10, by emailing enforcement@ofwat.gov.uk.
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