This is a story of two people who’ve made a difference – Professor Peter Hammond and Ash Smith. 

Author: Geoff Porter, OVA Environmental Committee 

First published in January 2024

Last October, I took the opportunity to attend a talk entitled ‘The River Sewage Pollution Scandal’ given by the above gentlemen as a part of Sidmouth Science Festival. Over many years, the state of our rivers and streams has been gradually deteriorating at a pace that was easy to overlook. For those closely linked to our waterways, the decline in water quality, water plant and aquatic life was noticed but not understood. 

In 2013, Peter and Ash became neighbours living alongside the river Windrush which runs through the Cotswolds before entering the Thames. The former was a retired professor specialising in machine learning and the latter a retired detective superintendent and keen angler. Ash watched fish numbers decline, the clear water had become opaque and aquatic plants slowly disappeared as algae took a hold. As both the Environment Agency and Ofwat were there to monitor the privatised water companies, where was the pollution coming from? In 2017, Hammond and Smith combined their professional skills to investigate; why was this happening? 

Together, they persisted, making numerous freedom of information requests to their local water company regarding the releasing of untreated sewage into the Windrush over the previous 3 years. They began to piece together a picture that stank; they learnt that over that period there had been 240 recorded events. The impact of sewage in rivers is to flood them with nutrients, increasing algae which exhausts oxygen in the water and blocks out light, thus suffocating fish, insects and plants. Along with other neighbours, they set up Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, ‘Wasp,’ in 2018. 

Hammond and Smith learnt how sewage works processed waste and found that surface water run off combined with sewage to go through that same system. This flow was supposedly being monitored every 15 minutes. Peter Hammonds analysis identified morning and evening peaks in waste produced as people showered, washed, flushed and did the dishes. When these peaks coincided with heavy rainfall, water treatment works could be overwhelmed. So, water companies were then faced with three options: - hold back the waste, forcing it to back up the system to drains and toilets, invest in increasing the capacity of their works or let sewage go into the river untreated. 

Hammond and Smith discovered that raw sewage had indeed been entering the Windrush and that water companies were permitted to do so at times of exceptional rainfall. Legally, water companies had to inform the regulators of these events but hadn’t been doing so. Furthermore, the data showed raw sewage had been discharged into the Windrush at times when there hadn’t been heavy rainfall. Regulators had either failed to recognise, or chosen to ignore this despite knowing that watercourses had been consistently deteriorating. 

When Hammond and Smith faced the Government with this evidence, they blamed the Environment Agency, pointing out that, with 10,500 staff and a £1.6bn budget, there should be no excuses as to why these discharges hadn’t been investigated and recorded. However, further investigation by Hammond and Smith found that the vast majority of that budget was allocated to flood defence work. The money ring-fenced for environmental protection had in fact been cut by 80% since 2010. At the same time, the annual enforcement budget had fallen from £11.6m to £7m. Consequently, the 800 prosecutions made in 2007-8 had fallen to 17 in 2020-21. Water companies knew that the E.A.’s testing capacity had been significantly reduced as had the risk of prosecution. Fewer prosecutions suggested that pollution was reducing due to water company improvements when in reality it was the result of many events not being investigated. For example, on the river Wye, 80 survey points had been reduced to 20. Whilst water testing legislation was in place, the Environment Agencies did not have the resources to investigate spillage incidents properly. 

The duo then broadened their research and discovered that all water companies they gleaned data from were also making illegal discharges; many of these were not being investigated. This evidence was put to Ofwat without response, despite there now being irrefutable data available. 

At the end of 2020, Parliament’s Environment Audit Committee inquired into the state of English and Welsh rivers and Professor Hammond put their findings to an appalled committee. In July 2021, the Committee visited the Windrush to see for themselves. Prof. Hammond then also provided details on Mogden, the third largest sewage works in the UK, situated next to Twickenham Stadium. This showed that, in October, over a 2-day period, over 2 billion litres of raw sewage had been released into the Thames. 

That November, Ofwat and the E.A. announced an investigation into English and Welsh water companies. Preliminary checks of millions of pieces of information provided by the companies suggested ‘widespread and serious non-compliance.’ Peter Hammond had already investigated these spillages and provided hard data. Both Ofwat and the E.A. were then bound to confirm that information. Following this, Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the E.A. stated that ‘water company executives and investors’ had been ‘rewarded handsomely while the environment pays the price.’ 

Negligent storage of farm slurry, silage and fuel-oil spillage also degrades streams and rivers. It is alleged that in the Wye valley for example, excessive nutrients from the large quantities of manure produced by the intensive farming of chickens has resulted in that rivers demise. It has also been suggested that even where farm pollution is detected, enforcement and penalties are not sufficient to be a deterrent. In 2021, the government provided funding for an additional 50 farm inspectors bringing the total to 80. As well as investigating pollution incidents, their role is to encourage farmers to adopt good practice. 

Alongside the more visible sewage pollution, there are also antibiotic-resistant micro-organisms, micro-plastics and ‘forever chemicals’ such as polyfluoroalkyl substances entering our waterways. All the drugs and chemicals that we use go down the drainage system, out of sight and out of mind but are there never-the-less. 

The Sidmouth audience who listened to Professor Hammond and Ash Smiths presentations might have attended in the hope that with so much information now in the public arena, government would have forced water companies to make rapid, significant improvements. Sadly, their presentations proved otherwise. In summary, their main points were:- 

Ash Smith:- 

• only serious pollution incidents are being prosecuted 
• water companies have been reducing their investment in works 
• companies are using off-shore banking 
• companies are still permitted to release untreated sewage when works are inundated 
• poorly maintained sewage pipes are resulting is sewage entering fields and brooks 
• the claim by the E.A. that plant-life on the Windrush had improved related to plants on the banks not those in the water 

Professor Hammond:- sewage-work regulations state that – 

• out-spills should meet agreed chemical levels 
• water companies should inform the E.A. of out-spill volumes every hour and day 
• excess flow should be held in storm tanks and treated but, when these tanks are full, untreated sewage can be legally released 
• whilst the times of discharges are recorded, volumes are not. Water companies claim they are not capable of recording discharge volumes 
• where data identified that improvements were required, customers’ bills would be increase to pay for them 
• information on out-spills is often recorded between 07.00 and 14.00, the lowest, off-peak period 
• huge amounts of micro-plastics and chemicals enter the system through sewage and then end up in the food chain 
• when excessive water enters treatment works, it often passes sewage through the system too quickly to be properly treated 
• SWW refused to provide all the information that should be publicly available 

So, has anything changed? 

In late October this year, following further investigations by Professor Hammond, Welsh Water - which is a not-for-profit company previously seen as abiding by regulations - admitted that they too had been spilling sewage from dozens of their treatment plants. In total, 11 Welsh rivers were exposed to 100,000 hours of illegal spills. Of those, four treatment works had discharged 419 million litres. Prof. Hammond’s research showed that between 40 and 50 Welsh Water treatment plants had operated in breach of their permits. Nonetheless, several polluted Welsh beaches were still awarded Blue Flags. Natural Resources Wales which undertakes the same role as the Environment Agency, had allowed these discharges for up to 10 years. 

Most recently, BBC Panorama on 4th December 2023 investigated north-west water companies, including United Utilities, along with the Environment Agency failing to monitor sewage discharges and regulation breaches. This failure included the E.A. who were agreeing to downgrade multiple pollution incidents to category 4, a point at which they did not require investigation and therefore recording. Of 931 reported pollution incidents, the E.A. had only attended 6. Illegal discharges included those into Lake Windermere. 

United Utilities denied these BBC allegations despite the evidence. The company had previously been seen as a best performer, as was Welsh Water. The Company were awarded £5 million pounds last year for apparently reducing pollution incidents. 

In conclusion, it would appear likely that all water companies are making illegal sewage discharges and that many polluting events are either not being recorded or under-recorded. This is partly if not wholly due to lack of investment in sewage works resulting in them being incapable of treating the volumes of sewage and storm water they receive. Water Companies continue to be self-regulating and Hammond and Smith suggest that companies ‘manage’ information about when, where and in what volumes they make sewage discharges and how polluting that might be. 

Many Water Company investors are based abroad. Their priorities have been and seemingly continue to be making profit and rewarding executives rather than investing in infrastructure. Companies replenish their finances, including any fines, by passing on costs to customers who have no choice of provider. 

Both Ofwat, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales are failing to ensure that water companies are not polluting water courses.

Failing to update the capability of sewage works to not just manage sewage but micro-plastics and a plethora of chemicals is resulting in the slow death of our watercourses. The threats presented by the latter are still not fully understood. There does not appear to be the political will to urgently respond to this situation especially at a time of financial constraint. 

We often feel that, as individuals, we are powerless to bring about change. However, Professor Hammond and Ash Smith are proof that the determination of two persistent amateurs has made a real difference. Other amateurs that have highlighted river pollution are passionate fishermen Feargal Sharkey and Paul Whitehouse. Both have campaigned to save our rivers. If you want to learn more, about Hammond and Smith, visit: www.windrushwasp.org 

If you wish to support change, visit RIVERACTION environment charity at riveraction.com  

Sources. 

• The River Sewage Pollution Scandal presentation – Professor Peter Hammond and Ash Smith. Part of Sidmouth Science Festival. 14th October 2023. 
• Men who revealed the slow, dirty death of English and Welsh rivers. Oliver Bullough. 4th August 2022. 
• Welsh Water admits illegally spilling sewage article. Kerry Hebden. 
• The Chemical Engineer. 23.10.2023 
• BBC Panorama. The Water Pollution Cover-Up. 04.12.2023.