Water firms 'to test for own pollution'

A WATER company with the country's worst polluting track record could soon be in charge of its own pollution tests.

South West Water along with other utility firms in the UK are to take over water pollution sampling from the Environment Agency.

At present the Agency is responsible for taking water samples to check compliance of sewage discharge.

However, from April 2009, the Agency will bring in an "operator self monitoring" system as part of a new "risk-based approach".

There are fears that the new in-house pollution controls would not be sufficiently monitored. A spokesman for the Environment Agency said the move would give water companies more responsibilities for the effluent discharges from their own sewage treatment works.

Pete Baker, a technical advisor at the Environment Agency, denied the initiative would hand over "complete responsibility to the water companies or allow them to police themselves".

South West Water was recently branded the worst of Britain's 27 water firms for water pollution after being convicted 47 times in five years of unlawfully polluting the Westcountry's rivers and beaches.

Following close behind in joint second place were Southern Water Services and United Utilities with 40 convictions each, while third was Thames Water Utilities with 30 convictions.

The company said its record had been improving since 2003 and there had not been any worst case scenario incidents of pollution in the past five years.

A spokeswoman for the firm last week said that the majority of pollution incidents had been connected with failures in the sewerage infrastructure.

However, the idea water companies could take over some of the Environment Agency's pollution testing, does not sit well with everyone. They were fears the water firm could police itself without due checks. Plymouth City Council councillor John Lock, from the Plympton Erle ward, was affected this June when a pipe blunder left 16,000 homes and businesses in the Plymouth and south Dartmoor areas with polluted water.

He said the general public ought to be able to go above South West Water and request that the Environment Agency carries out further tests if they are not happy with the results provided by the water company.

Coun Lock said: "Any result from South West Water ought to be challenged. We shouldn't be accepting what the company says at face value and the general public should be able to go to the Environment Agency to challenge such results if they are unhappy with the results."

Since the beginning of the year, SWW has paid out thousands of pounds in compensation and has had to pay more than £30,000 in fines after pleading guilty to numerous offences of water pollution.

In the Plymouth and south Dartmoor areas, customers were offered a £15 payment for the inconvenience, with the cost totalling £240,000. However, compensation to businesses is expected to add at least £500,000 on to SWW's final bill.

Paul Conium, a spokesman for South West Water, said: "South West Water already carries out self-monitoring for a number of processes, such as UV disinfection – which we have self-monitored since 1997.

"Implementation of self-monitoring is demanding and strictly audited.

"The Environment Agency retain the right to carry out independent inspections and audits and can act on any cause for concern."