Three water firms have been fined £168m for failing to manage their wastewater treatment works and networks properly, Ofwat has announced today.
Thames Water has been fined £104m, Yorkshire Water has been fined £47m, and Ofwat charged Northumbrian Water £17m.
These fines are related to the companies’ poor management of wastewater treatment works and wider sewer networks, including their operation of storm overflows.
These overflows are meant to release water only in exceptional circumstances, like heavy downpours or snowfall, to prevent sewage from flooding homes.
However, Ofwat’s findings revealed that all three companies have allowed untreated wastewater discharges from storm overflows in non-exceptional circumstances.
The discharges have harmed the environment and customers, with high spill levels linked to operational issues at treatment sites, indicating poor operation and maintenance.
The regulator said the companies had failed to upgrade necessary assets to meet local needs and were slow to understand and comply with pollution control obligations.
The breaches varied in scale between the companies. Alongside the fines, Ofwat said it would also consult on enforcement orders, which could require each company to rectify these issues to meet their legal and regulatory obligations.
Ofwat said it will ensure customers are not double-charged for additional maintenance costs.
Ofwat’s chief Executive David Black 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.
“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 per cent by 2030 compared to 2021 levels.”