SEWAGE POLLUTION ANALYSIS
Contact: Peter Hammond watervole@icloud.com
2025
Water Industry Greenwashing
Greenwashing by water and sewerage companies in England.
Alex Ford, Andrew Singer, Peter Hammond, Jamie Woodward.
We identify 22 tactics of denial, disruption, distraction, distortion, deflection, casting doubt and ultimately delay through disinformation.
2024
Illegal spills by United Utilities
lllegal sewage spilling to Lake Windermere and nearby watercourses identified by SaveWindermere and Windrush Against Sewage Pollution.
501 days with spills to 4 STWs & 3 pumping stations between 2018 and 2023
Operator Self-Monitoring
WASP investigates potential abuse of Operator Self-Monitoring of sewage treatment
20 examples are discussed in detail along with water company responses
Severn Trent Water
made illegal sewage spills on 803 days at 50 STWs
provided such unreliable spill data for 85 STWs that WASP could not disentangle all legal and illegal sewage spills
United Utilities
made illegal sewage spills on 571 days at 35 STWs
obstructed investigation of 37 STWs
provided such unreliable spill data for 47 STWs that WASP could not disentangle all legal and illegal sewage spills
Event Duration Monitors (EDMs)
WASP demonstrates that even when sewage spill monitors work they generate inaccurate data.
In 2026, EDM data will be a metric in the EA’s annual review of water companies – “a system built on sand”.
2023
2,274 days with illegal sewage discharges to 11 Welsh rivers from 2018 to 2023
Cardigan STW has been in breach of its permit for a decade without criminal prosecution.
WASP dispels the myth about Victorian sewerage networks.
Only 12 % of all sewers in England are Victorian in age.
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WASP estimates volumes of sewage spills and shows how pollution exposure progresses down a river catchment from the headwaters.
The treatment of over half of all sewage, that
generated before 7 am and after 3pm, has avoided OSM quality monitoring since 2009.
Water companies' private monitoring data, not supplied to the EA but obtained by WASP, suggests permit compliance is less than reported.
2022 2021
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Water companies do not report spills accurately, even with EDMs fitted.
Spill incidence is misreported and regulation of permits to discharge to watercourses is suboptimal.
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7 water companies made at least 2,405 “illegal” spills from 44 STWs between 2017 and 2021
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735 illegal discharges of untreated sewage from 13 Thames Water STWs between 2018 and 2020
Of 7,160 days, 926 unreported sewage discharges were detected, some of which were non-compliant and hence illegal.
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