Archived press release

Privatised Water Industry to be asked to police itself for illegal pollution

23 November 1994

A National Rivers Authority document obtained by Friends of the Earth shows that the water companies are to be allowed to monitor their own pollution [1]. Under the new system, the Government will expect the water companies to tell the proposed new Environment Agency when they have illegally polluted waterways.

This arrangement reinstates the conflict of interest, with the polluter and the regulator being the same body, that existed in the pre-privatisation state-owned water authorities.

This so-called 'poacher-gamekeeper' situation was described by the then Secretary of State for the Environment, the late Nicholas Ridley as 'a glaring defect' [2] and was almost universally criticised in the debates which lead to the Water Act 1989.

By allowing water companies to police themselves, this Government is set to return to what it had earlier described as 'the flawed ideology of the Labour Party' [2].

Guy Linley-Adams, Water Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:

"Self-monitoring by polluters is seriously flawed. Even the Tory government of the late 1980s saw that much. Without independent monitoring of pollution, the regulator gets captured by the polluter."

In the last few months, the Department of the Environment has already bowed to Treasury pressure to cut the environmental protection budget still further [3]. The Government is also set to yield to industry pressure to weaken totally the proposed new Environment Agency [4].

ENDS

CONTACT: GUY LINLEY-ADAMS, WATER CAMPAIGNER ON 071-566- 1685 OR NEIL VERLANDER, INFORMATION OFFICER ON 071-566- 1649

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] NRA Standard Consent Conditions for Sewage Effluent Discharges (pages 1 and 2 dated 12 July 1994, the remainder 6th October 1994).

[2] Rt Hon the late Nicholas Ridley, then Secretary of State for the Environment. Second Reading Debate for the Water Bill 7th December 1988. Hansard, 7th December 1994, p336.

[3] Friends of the Earth Press Release 4th August 1994: 'Pollution Watchdogs Kneecapped by HM Treasury - Environment Agency To Be Cost Cut Before Birth'.

[4] Option Five in the Touche-Ross Final Report (October 1994) on the proposed structure for the new Environment Agency was produced after consultation with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Chemical Industries Association (CIA), the Water Services Association (WSA) and the National Association of Waste Disposal Contractors (NAWDC). It would involve cuts of o23 million per annum and job cuts of 1,010 on current staffing of HMIP, NRA and the WRAs. The biggest polluters in the country can be found in the membership lists of these four bodies.

CONTACT: GUY LINLEY-ADAMS, WATER CAMPAIGNER ON 071-566- 1685 OR NEIL VERLANDER, INFORMATION OFFICER ON 071-566- 1649

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust