Latest news with #water pollution
Sky News
a day ago
- General
- Sky News
Serious water pollution incidents up 60% last year, watchdog reveals
Why you can trust Sky News The number of most serious water pollution incidents rose by 60% last year, according to data covering England, with three companies responsible for the bulk of them. The Environment Agency (EA) - under fire for its own oversight of water firms' pollution performance - said that more than 80% of the 75 instances were the responsibility of Thames Water (33), Southern Water (15) and Yorkshire Water (13). The body said it found "consistently poor performance" across all nine water and wastewater firms in the country. According to the report, reasons behind the 2024 results include persistent underinvestment in new infrastructure, poor asset maintenance, and reduced resilience due to the impacts of climate change. The data was released as a committee of MPs called for regulation of water companies to face a "complete overhaul" amid a lack of public trust and anger over surging bills to pay for long overdue infrastructure improvements. The Public Accounts Committee said that Ofwat and the EA had failed to secure industry compliance and warned that even the high bill settlements to 2030 would only result in 44% of sewage overflows being overhauled. The Independent Water Commission, established by the government last year and led by former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe, is due to make final recommendations on the regulatory framework next week. He warned when the interim report was published last month: "There is no simple, single change, no matter how radical, that will deliver the fundamental reset that is needed for the water sector." Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Science
- BBC News
Herefordshire's River Lugg among worst for hazardous chemicals
The River Lugg in Herefordshire has been named as one of the worst waterways for containing hazardous chemicals known as biocides, it has been groups Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) and the Rivers Trust examined official water quality data from English rivers for seven key biocides including fungicides, a herbicide and were widespread in rivers, the study found, but the River Lugg, along with the River Teme at Powick in Worcestershire, was among the 12 showing the highest numbers of individual government said it was committed to tackling all sources of pollution and cleaning up the country's waterways. In all, 119 sites were tested across England and at least one of the biocides was detected in 113 of them.A WCL spokesman said: "The likelihood is that a substantial proportion of biocide pollution in the Lugg will be from inclusion of these chemicals in products used in agricultural settings."He said the group was "not blaming farmers" but rather it was a "systemic issue", because the chemicals were included in "an enormous range of products". 'As harmful as sewage' Rivers Trust director of policy and science Dr Rob Collins called the findings "alarming".He said: "Though it's not possible from this data to determine the level of harm they are having on our rivers and wildlife, these are hazardous chemicals, designed to kill organisms."He said chemical pollution in rivers was "just as harmful as sewage".The groups want the government to align the regulation of such chemicals with the EU as a "quick, sensible solution to bridge the chemical protection gap in the UK", rather than bringing in River Lugg flows through Leominster before joining the River Wye near Hereford.A spokesman for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "We are committed to tackling all sources of pollution to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas."We have already banned the use of bee-killing pesticides that threaten to cause harm to our waterways and published the first Pesticides National Action Plan in a decade." This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
