United Utilities: UK water firm is 'covering up' over 60 sewage pollution incidents - all signed off by Environment Agency

Whistleblowers at the Environment Agency (EA) have claimed the company has been wrongly downgrading pollution incidents that water companies make and is failing to conduct independent checks. One insider told BBC’s Panorama investigation that United Utilities was "controlling the evidence" on pollution. Leaked documents to the BBC suggest the water firm wrongly downgraded dozens of pollution incidents in north-west England last year.

The EA signed off all the downgrades without attending any of the incidents. From 2020 through to the end of 2022, there were 931 reported water company pollution incidents in north-west England, and the investigation found that the EA only attended six. United Utilities denied misreporting pollution. 

Panorama obtained 200 reports about pollution incidents at United Utilities' sewage works in 2022. In more than 60 of these cases, the company appeared to have wrongly downgraded the incidents to the lowest level, category 4 - and these were all signed off by the EA.

Category 4 incidents are not counted in published figures because they are supposed to have had no environmental impact. Only more serious categories 1-3 are counted.

EA guidance says category 4 should only be used where either pollution doesn't get into the water course, or where it is of such insignificance that it doesn't have an impact, for example a "trickle into a large water course". But the incidents identified by the programme found that they were all more than a "trickle" and appeared to have had an impact. The BBC said that if the 60 cases identified by Panorama were wrongly downgraded, then United Utilities should not have been awarded its £5m bonus for reducing pollution incidents last year.

One of the apparent cover-ups was in the middle of Windermere, a World Heritage Site in the Lake District. In June 2022, a fault led to raw sewage being pumped into the middle of Windermere that lasted for more than three hours.

The leaked documents shown to the BBC found that it was initially thought to be a serious category 2 incident, but the EA didn't attend and United Utilities downgraded it to category 4. An EA insider told the BBC it was a serious incident. 

United Utilities initially denied that sewage had been pumped into the middle of the lake but company documents obtained by Panorama prove the sewage was discharged into the middle of Windermere. The EA declined to be interviewed for the programme, but said it takes its “responsibility to protect the environment very seriously” adding that it responds to “every incident and always attends those where there is a significant risk."

A United Utilities spokesperson said: “Panorama has made a series of allegations about United Utilities, which we strongly reject. Pollution incidents are investigated and action taken where necessary. The Environment Agency, as the regulator, determines both the initial and final categorisation of pollution incidents. We care passionately about the environment and the communities we serve and have just proposed an ambitious £13.7 billion investment plan – the biggest for over 100 years – to improve services for customers, communities and the environment here in the North West.”