South West Water withheld sewage data to avoid political attention

The water company behind a recent parasite outbreak in drinking water tried to hide sewage data to avoid “political attention”.

Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.co.uk

South West Water, whose chief executive was called to parliament over the Cryptosporidium outbreak, repeatedly refused to divulge information to The Times on sewage discharges that could reveal illegal dumping into rivers and seas on dry days.

Raw sewage releases are allowed during heavy rain, with spills on dry days considered risky for swimmers and more harmful to the environment.

The company told the UK’s data watchdog that it wanted to withhold the stop and start times of sewage spills because it would allow third parties to analyse the data. “These analyses may not be accurate and could in turn cause undue media and/or political attention,” it told the Information Commissioner’s Office.

South West Water feared that attention would result in pressure being put on the Environment Agency and Ofwat, the regulator, which are investigating its possible illegal practices. The water firm, which wants to raise household water bills by 20 per cent by 2030, warned of an “adverse effect on the course of justice”.

Susan Davy, its chief executive, was asked by the environment, food and rural affairs committee to a hearing after residents in Devon were told to boil water because of the parasite. The hearing was due to take place this week but was cancelled because of the announcement of the general election.

South West Water is one of six firms that have been formally ordered by the commissioner’s office to release pollution data, enabling scrutiny of whether it is discharging sewage when it is not raining.

Northumbrian Water, another one of the six, made a similar objection to its figures being made public. “The data could become the subject of significant media or political attention and a public conversation of this kind could result in pressure being applied, directly or indirectly, to the independent investigators,” it said.

The regulators are looking into whether several water companies have breached permits for handling sewage at their wastewater treatment works. An initial assessment indicated “widespread and serious” non-compliance by not treating enough sewage before releasing it into rivers and seas. Water firms could face financial penalties when the 30-month investigation reports its findings.

The Times was repeatedly rebuffed by the six water companies, including Yorkshire Water. It said the stop-start times of its spills, which could be cross-referenced with weather data to find potential evidence of illegal discharges on dry days, could lead to inaccurate analyses. It also suggested that releasing the information could “lead to pressure being applied to the investigations being conducted”.

Another of the companies, Anglian Water, argued that the data could “prejudice the conduct of fair trial”. It told the ICO: “It is our understanding that journalists … will attempt to ‘marry up’ spill data with weather data in order to reach conclusions regarding the occurrence of pollution events.”

Pollution of the UK’s waterways and coastlines has emerged as a key environmental issue of the election campaign. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, cited sewage as an example of Tory “chaos” after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, called an election, while the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, highlighted sewage dumping in Windermere.

On Sunday the Liberal Democrats said their manifesto would include plans for “blue flag rivers”, a protected status to help swimmers and wildlife. The election has already delayed a decision by Ofwat on how much water firms can increase bills over the next five years to pay for new infrastructure, with the announcement pushed back to July 11.

“Water firms are trying to avoid scrutiny by withholding vital information on sewage spills. It is time we got tough on these polluting and profiteering companies,” Tim Farron, the environment spokesman for the Lib Dems, said.

Last week the government announced it would no longer accept applications for new bathing waters until 2025, which is a disappointment to swimming groups. The Times’s Clean It Up campaign has been calling for hundreds of new bathing waters on rivers by the end of the decade to prompt an improvement in water quality.

The Times is demanding faster action to improve the country’s waterways. Find out more about the Clean It Up campaign