South West Water allowed to invest £24m rather than pay £19m fine | Water industry

South West Water has agreed to pay a penalty of 24 million pounds sterling for illegal sewer releases to the environment from its treatment work.

The regulator of the water and wastewater sector in England and Wales, ofwat, affirms that the company, which has 1.8 million customers in Cornwall, Devon, the islands of Scilly and certain parts of Dorset and Somerset, is penalized for the spill of wastewater in violation of its conditions of legal permit.

But there was anger with regard to revelations on Thursday that the regulator had not inflicted a direct fine on the company.

South West Water proposed the suggestion that he would invest 20 million pounds sterling to reduce wastewater discharges during key storm overflows, spend 2 million pounds sterling to combat sewer abuses and criminals, and 2 million additional sterling pounds to support local environment groups. This was accepted by Ofwat rather than imposing a fine of 19 million pounds sterling.

But Rob Abrams, the director of campaigns at Surfers Against Sewage, said that authorizing him water companies to choose their own penalty was eccentric.

He declared that the situation “illustrates a model of the water industry which is broken beyond the reparation, with the government and the regulators subject to industry and its unleashed profit, at all costs”.

Ofwat said that it has chosen this path rather than imposing a fine because it was convinced that the company would carry out the work necessary to bring its infrastructures to legal exploitation.

“We have … concluded that it would be appropriate to accept companies instead of the financial penalty that we imposed on this case (19 million pounds Sterling, 6.5% of its relevant turnover),” said ofwat.

The regulator conducted a two -year investigation, which noted that the company had not upgraded its treatment work to prevent sewer discharges in the environment, had not properly managed the content of its sewers and did not succeed in the resources to monitor its treatment properly.

The penalty is the latest continuous survey of offering on several water companies during the widespread illegal wastewater spill across the network from thousands of treatment plants.

Penalties totaling more than 160 million pounds sterling have already been imposed against Yorkshire water, Thames water and northern water for generalized illegal waters of their treatment work.

Lynn Parker, principal director of the application of the law at OFWAT, said that the regulator had obtained the package of 24 million pounds sterling and a commitment to put things directly from the company.

But Abrams said it was equivalent to a cynical public relations exercise and an abdication of responsibility by OFWAT.

“There is no transparency on how money will be spent or if that is enough,” he said. “Of the 4 million sterling pounds promised for environmental initiatives and local groups, we have not been clarified on who will benefit or why.”

The public and the other stakeholders can make representations on the size of the penalty before the ofnat makes its final decision.