South West Water told to deliver appropriate sewage treatment

South West Water has been ordered by the Environment Agency to deliver "appropriate sewage treatment" at several of its facilities after an investigation found that the company had been discharging inadequately treated effluent into rivers and coastal waters, in the latest enforcement action against a water industry that is facing unprecedented regulatory pressure.

The order, which carries the force of law, requires the company to install additional treatment capacity at five sites in Devon and Cornwall and to report monthly on its progress. The Environment Agency said the company had been operating outside its permit conditions for an extended period and that the affected water bodies had suffered measurable environmental harm as a result.

The action is significant because it represents a shift from the Environment Agency's traditional approach of negotiating improvement plans with water companies to a more confrontational posture of legal enforcement. The agency's new chief executive has made clear that she regards prosecution, rather than negotiation, as the appropriate response to systemic non-compliance.

South West Water said it accepted the Environment Agency's findings and was investing £180 million in improving its treatment infrastructure. The company said the failures were the result of a combination of population growth, climate change and ageing infrastructure, and that the investment programme would bring all of its facilities into compliance within three years.

The order comes as the water industry faces a growing public and political backlash over its environmental record. Every water company in England is currently subject to at least one Environment Agency investigation, and the government has introduced legislation that would give the regulator the power to impose unlimited fines and to pursue criminal prosecutions against individual executives.