Whistleblowers lift the lid on why the Environment Agency is failing to get a grip on England’s sewage crisis in new film by ENDS Report

London, 27 September 2022: ENDS Report today launches its new film, ‘SEVERN: the poisoning of Britain’s Amazon’, revealing concerns from the Environment Agency’s own staff that the regulator is allowing water companies to get away with polluting England’s rivers.

In explosive testimony, whistleblowers – including current and former Environment Agency officers — say that the regulator is ignoring its duties and failing to hold water companies to account as they continue to pour raw sewage into England’s rivers. 

Speaking exclusively to ENDS Report, the whistleblowers say that efforts to protect England’s rivers have been heavily deprioritised after the agency’s budget has been “aggressively slashed”. They highlight that the watchdog’s river monitoring activity has been cut by half in recent years, making it even easier for water companies to dump untreated sewage in England’s waterways. A lack of funding has led the regulator to turn a blind eye, they claim.

The current and former employees of the agency say that regulations exist to allow the agency to take enforcement action against river pollution, but most are failing to be upheld. 

One whistleblower claims it became “hard to represent the Environment Agency” and “impossible to influence the work”. They warn if the regulator continues to act in this way, England risks entering a phase of relying on voluntary measures and self regulation to prevent illegal sewage discharges, making a bad situation worse. 

Another insider at the Environment Agency said: “The biggest threat to the future of water quality is undoubtedly the regulator itself… any changes in how water quality is regulated will be because of the public outcry, not because the Environment Agency suddenly considers water quality a priority.”

ENDS Report chose to focus its film on the Severn as it is the longest river in Britain and its issues reflect the state of pollution problems spanning the entire country. Around 400 rivers, 29 lakes and 33 groundwater bodies make up the Severn estuary. Just 45 (10%) were found to be in good ecological condition in the Environment Agency’s last assessment in 2019.

Rachel Salvidge, Deputy Editor at ENDS Report, said: “Water companies are behaving like this because they can and because pollution is profitable. Environmental regulators are pulling back from their regulatory role and polluters are not being held properly to account. This is a nationwide problem. 

“In making this film, we hope to further expose how serious the situation is. When the main body we expect to regulate the environment isn’t doing its job, urgent changes must be made to enforcing regulatory standards in our rivers. Water companies should not be allowed to continue behaving like this.”

In 2021, there were more than 20,000 reports of water companies disposing untreated sewage into the River Severn alone. When looking at all of England’s rivers and seas, this number jumps to well over 370,000. These are only the reported cases, with many more going unreported or unnoticed. No water companies were willing to be interviewed in the making of the film. 

The film also hears from executives at companies including The Rivers Trust, Surfers Against Sewage and Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, as well as those who have become seriously ill from sewage pollution in the Severn, all unanimously calling for an urgent need for action. 

‘SEVERN: the poisoning of Britain’s Amazon’ is available to watch from Tuesday 27 September here.

[ENDS] 

Notes to Editors

Media enquiries: 

Tara Geoghegan, Communications Manager

tara.geoghegan@haymarket.com 

About ENDS Report

Established in 1978, ENDS Report is the UK’s number one source of intelligence for environmental professionals, providing news, intelligence, analysis and features that environmental practitioners need to keep up to date, understand key trends in the environmental space and deepen their knowledge.

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