Water companies made more than £340 million in revenue last year by pouring billions of litres of wastewater into sewage treatment works, reports The Guardian.
An investigation by The Guardian, River Action and Watershed Investigations found that an annual total of 608 billion litres of industrial wastewater entering sewage works from sites such as power stations, pharmaceutical plants, food factories, hospitals, abattoirs and waste facilities.
Experts say these sewage facilities are not designed to remove most chemicals, allowing pollutants to enter rivers, seas and farmland.
Amy Fairman, Head of Campaigns at River Action, said: “Industrial pollution must not become a lucrative business for water companies … Polluters must be held to account and made to pay, rather than passing the costs and consequences down the line.
“The public has a right to know what is being put into our sewage works and where those pollutants ultimately end up. The government has promised to clean up our rivers through the clean water bill – it must confront this hidden industrial wastewater trade and address the serious failures exposed by this investigation.”
The law states that water companies are required to take industrial wastewater and issue permits called ‘trade-effluent consents’ that allow businesses to send it to sewage works, though water companies can refuse applications.
However, no independent regulator oversees the trade-effluent process and there is no central register.
The permits are issued and enforced by the water companies themselves, with environmental regulators having no direct role.
A spokesperson for Water UK said: “Water companies are legally obliged to accept trade effluent and charges are set by Ofwat. The Environment Agency sets the permit conditions, but they make no account of the fact that sewers are not designed to treat a range of toxic substances such as forever chemicals and mercury which is still sadly used by many dentists.
“That’s why we have long called for the government to ban these toxic substances and to force the manufacturers topay the costs of removing them from the environment.”
United Utilities made the most revenue from industrial waste last year, at £61.6 million, followed by Yorkshire Water at £48.8 million. However, these companies included revenues from tankered waste in their figures, while some did not.
Thames Water has the largest volume of permitted industrial sewage, at 113 billion litres, followed by United Utilities at 105 billion litres and Severn Trent Water at 79 billion litres.
Across the sector, revenues from receiving industrial and commercial wastewater have risen sharply in five years, with Anglian Water’s increasing by 62%.
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