Welsh Water fined £1.35m for sewage discharge breaches

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water has been fined £1.35 million and ordered to pay more than £70,000 in costs after admitting to more than 800 breaches of environmental permits related to sewage discharges across Wales and Herefordshire.

The breaches occurred between 2020 and 2021 and were identified through the company’s own self-monitoring data submitted to Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

Due to the volume of non-compliances, the offences were condensed into 18 charges for the purpose of court proceedings.

The case was heard at Llandudno Magistrates Court, where the company pleaded guilty to 15 offences in October 2024 and accepted the remaining charges two months later.

Under a 2010 regulation, water companies are required to carry out self-monitoring of discharges from sewage and water treatment works.

NRW officials raised concerns when the 2020 annual report revealed over 600 breaches, a marked deterioration in data quality compared to previous years.

The company attributed the failures to internal restructuring, IT scheduling problems and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although improvements were seen in 2021, further breaches were still recorded.

NRW stressed that contingency plans should have been in place to ensure continued legal compliance during the restructuring.

Siân Williams, Head of Operations at NRW, said: “This case highlights inadequacies in the processes at Dŵr Cymru which led to widespread permit breaches across Wales and over the border during a period of two years.”

“While we appreciate the disruption all businesses faced during 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic, we believe the failings shown by Dŵr Cymru were avoidable should better contingency planning have been in place,” she added.

The missing samples and data from 2020 limited NRW’s ability to assess potential environmental impacts, though officials say the cumulative effect of hundreds of breaches is considered significant.

NRW has downgraded Dŵr Cymru’s environmental rating from a four-star “industry leading” company in 2020 to a two-star “requires improvement” status in both 2022 and 2023.

In 2023, the company recorded its worst performance against environmental metrics, including a rise in serious pollution incidents and a drop in self-reporting.

The permit breaches involved in this case were not included in the Environmental Performance Assessment metrics, but the case reinforces wider concerns about the company’s recent performance.

Ms Williams added: “We will not hesitate to use our regulatory and enforcement powers where it is the appropriate thing to do to bring any permit holder into compliance.”

NRW said it is now placing more focus on water quality and has increased compliance monitoring and auditing of Dŵr Cymru’s self-monitoring processes.