Regulating for the water environment
John Collins
Environment Agency
john.collins@environment-agency.gov.uk
Environment Agency
john.collins@environment-agency.gov.uk
ECG Bulletin January 2024
As part of the ECG’s Distinguished Guest Lecture and symposium at Burlington House on 22nd May 2023, Dr John Collins (Environment Agency) gave an overview of the history, current state and impacts of Water Regulation in England.
The state of our waters has become a subject of heated debate in recent years, but it has taken many decades, arguably centuries, to reach the current position. In the mid-1800s, the smells emanating from the river Thames and the identification by Dr John Snow of the waterborne nature of cholera epidemics led to legislation establishing municipal sewerage boards and funding Sir Joseph Bazalgette to develop London’s sewerage system. At the time, this was a transformational piece of engineering for health and wellbeing in the capital, soon imitated across the country.
More recently, the protection and improvement of the water environment has been dominated by European legislation, particularly the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which has set targets and mechanisms for improving and protecting the
water environment over the last 20 years.
Regulation of the water environment is carried out by several bodies, the largest of which is the Environment Agency. The focus of its activities can be summed up as relating to too much, too little, and too dirty water – floods, droughts, and pollution. Ofwat is the economic regulator responsible for ensuring the good management of water and sewerage companies in England. Natural England looks at water principally through the lens of protected areas.
There is much debate about how well the WFD has worked in protecting the water environment. Water has been managed in river basins and, within that, smaller water bodies are classified according to their chemical and ecological status, by assessing a combination of determinant or elements. The overall status is decided on the basis of what is known as the “one out, all out” rule. Only 16% of assessed surface water bodies achieve good or better ecological status.
More recently, the protection and improvement of the water environment has been dominated by European legislation, particularly the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which has set targets and mechanisms for improving and protecting the
water environment over the last 20 years.
Regulation of the water environment is carried out by several bodies, the largest of which is the Environment Agency. The focus of its activities can be summed up as relating to too much, too little, and too dirty water – floods, droughts, and pollution. Ofwat is the economic regulator responsible for ensuring the good management of water and sewerage companies in England. Natural England looks at water principally through the lens of protected areas.
There is much debate about how well the WFD has worked in protecting the water environment. Water has been managed in river basins and, within that, smaller water bodies are classified according to their chemical and ecological status, by assessing a combination of determinant or elements. The overall status is decided on the basis of what is known as the “one out, all out” rule. Only 16% of assessed surface water bodies achieve good or better ecological status.
However, a closer examination of the analyses underpinning this assessment shows that the underlying elements often perform somewhat better; overall 77% of individual tests would be classified as good, and 92% of ammonia and 76% of invertebrates’ tests respectively achieve good status. No water body achieves good chemical status. This is largely as a result of improved analysis and identification of ubiquitous and long-lasting “forever chemicals”, such as PFAS, in the water environment. This is a common picture across Europe, particularly in the more industrialised northern countries.
A more positive story is the impact of regulation on Bathing Waters, where, over the last thirty years, achievement of good and excellent standards at bathing waters has risen from around 30% to almost 95%.
The Environment Agency regulates those who use water either by abstracting it or discharging into it. It issues
permits and has powers to assess compliance with those permits and to take enforcement action, including prosecution to ensure compliance with those permits. Water and Sewerage companies are regulated in this way, and serious pollution incidents
from this industry have reduced from over 500 per year in the mid-nineties to 50-60 per year in recent years (a figure which still needs to be reduced further). Recent prosecutions of water companies for pollution incidents have resulted in fines running into the tens of millions of pounds.
An analysis of causes of water bodies failing to achieve good status, reveals that while wastewater at 36% is a major cause of failure, agriculture (40%) and physical modifications to water courses (41%) are more common causes.
Efforts to improve the water environment through regulation, new policies and investments have been brought forward in the last year. These have included schemes such as Slurry Infrastructure grants, under the Government’s Environmental Land Management programme, increased penalties for water companies for major pollution incidents with hypothecation of the environmental fines imposed, and the publication of the Government’s integrated Plan for Water.