Welsh Water Admits Dumping Untreated Sewage Into UK Rivers For Years

Welsh Water had been spilling untreated sewage near a rare dolphin habitat for years, the company admitted in a statement.

It accepted that around 40 to 50 of its wastewater treatment plants have been operating in breach of their permits.

The breach came to light after Peter Hammond, a former University College London professor who campaigns for Windrush Against Sewage, carried out a review of data from 11 Welsh treatment plants. He found that as many as 10 plants had been releasing untreated sewage.

A BBC investigation found that the company had been illegally discharging wastewater for at least a decade, and the worst offender is the Cardigan plant in West Wales. The plant spilled untreated sewage for a cumulative total of 1,146 days between 2018 and 2023.

"This is the worst sewage works I've come across in terms of illegal discharges," Professor Hammond said. The company has said that it is working to tackle the problems, adding that they "are not proud of this at all".

"It's a very uncomfortable position to be in – but it's not for the want of trying. We have been trying to fix this," Steve Wilson, managing director for wastewater services at Welsh Water, told the BBC.

The publication reported that regulator Natural Resources Wales (NRW) was aware of the issue for the last eight years; however, no fine was imposed on Welsh Water.

The NRW, in a statement, said that they have prosecuted Welsh Water for a number of pollution events in the past, but "just not for low flow spills as is the case here".

The regulator further stated that they will try to set national guidance along with England.

The development comes months after a study by scientists at Oxford University found that sewage released by UK water companies was more damaging to rivers than agricultural waste.

It needs to be noted that UK water companies are allowed to discharge treated and untreated wastewater during heavy rains.

The study has been published in the journals Global Change Biology and Ecological Solutions and Evidence. It called for urgent action to address the issue and more stringent regulations for wastewater plants.

Earlier this year, the UK's water bodies forced water companies to pledge £10 billion to reduce sewage spills in Britain's seas and rivers.

It came after a report by the Environment Agency revealed the extent and frequency of sewage spillage in the country's water bodies.

The EA said that there were a total of 301,091 sewage spills in 2022, which essentially implies that on a daily basis, 824 spill incidents took place last year.

The Environment Agency found that as many as nine water and sewerage companies in England had failed to perform. The agency assessed nine such companies for the year 2021 and found that their performance had fallen to its lowest level.

The report found that these firms continued to allow sewage to be discharged into water bodies in the UK. Southern Water and South West Water received just one-star ratings, while Anglian, Thames, Wessex, and Yorkshire were rated only two stars for their dismal performance.

A House of Commons Committee report also found that water companies have been dumping untreated or partially treated sewage in rivers on a regular basis.

The UK's privatised water and sewage companies were raking in money while putting people's health at risk.

According to a report by the Financial Times, the aforementioned firms paid £1.4 billion in dividends in 2022, up from £540 million the previous year. It now remains to be seen if they really do manage to get their act together without putting an additional burden on consumers.

A recent report by The Observer claimed that 90 per cent of UK freshwater habitats have been polluted by raw sewage, agricultural waste, or water abstraction.