More than 3,000 illegally dumped sewage in streams across the country since 2017 has seen it emerge.
Seven water companies in England and Wales have regularly broken the law by discharging untreated sewage into Britain’s waterways over the past four years, a report by the BBC alleges.
Campaigners said data shared with the broadcaster showed that the water industry was flouting ‘poor regulation’ by the Environment Agency.
Southern Water is South West Water, Thames Water and Thames Water are the seven companies being accused.
Professor Peter Hammond, who campaigns with Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, said that the companies discharged untreated sewage from 59 treatment works that treat 4.5million people’s wastewater.
Since 2017, raw sewage was illegally dumped in more than 3000 rivers all over the country (stock photo)
The Environment Agency failed to spot thousands of illegal leakages because they are not examining the data enough.
Water UK, which represents the water companies, said the companies agree there is an ‘urgent need for action to tackle the harm caused to the environment by overflows’.
MPs warned last week that England’s rivers are fouled by a ‘chemical cocktail’ of raw sewage, slurry, oils, car tyre microplastics and wet wipes.
Parliament’s Environment Audi Committee branded water and agriculture companies the biggest contributors and said the ubiquitous pollution poses a risk to both the environment and to human health.
Prof Hammond told the BBC: ‘In some cases, multiple sewage workers are spilling into the same river causing damage for long periods of time, sometimes spinning as long as four months, six months almost without a break.’
The broadcaster said Prof Hammond looked at data from ‘event duration monitors’, which check every 15 minutes whether a treatment works is discharging untreated sewage into a river.
He then compared this data with rainfall data and with the companies’s records on how much sewage they’re treating.
He claimed that Thames Water, which runs the Dorking sewage treatment plants at Dorking, was the source of the greatest number of spillages.
According to the BBC, untreated wastewater was released into River Mole every 223 days for the past 4 years.
Prof Hammond’s analysis suggests that none of them would have been permitted by the rules, because either the weather was too dry, or not enough of the sewage had been treated properly.
In exceptional situations, like heavy rains or floods, water companies can allow untreated wastewater to be discharged into the rivers.
They may be breaking the law if they discharge when the conditions are dry – so-called ‘dry spills’.
They could also be acting illegally if they are not treating enough of the sewage before they discharge it – known as an ‘early spill’.
A Thames Water spokesman told MailOnline: ‘We’ve received the report and will be looking at it carefully in the coming days.
‘We regard all discharges of untreated sewage as unacceptable and will work with the government, Ofwat and the Environment Agency to accelerate work to stop them being necessary and are determined to be transparent.
‘That is why we’ve committed to providing sewage discharge notifications in close to real time from all of our 468 permitted discharge points by the end of 2022 and believe we’re the only water company to have made such a commitment for inland waters.
‘We have an unprecedented amount of investment directed towards safeguarding our rivers and streams.
Seven water companies in England and Wales have discharged untreated sewage into Britain’s waterways since 2017, a report by the BBC alleges (file image of the River Trent at Yoxall)
Campaigners said data showed that the water industry was flouting ‘poor regulation’ by the Environment Agency (file image of the River Thames at Maidenhead)
‘Between 2020 and 2025 we are spending £1.25billion on maintaining and improving our operational sites, including contributing to the health of 745km of rivers across London and the Thames Valley, for example increasing our capacity by 50 per cent at our Witney site.
‘Our aim will always be to try and do the right thing for our rivers and for the communities who love and value them. We have a long way to go – and we certainly can’t do it on our own – but the ambition is clear.’
When approached by BBC, the Spokesman for United Utilities and Southern Water questioned some of the data.
Yorkshire Water said that Prof Hammond had ‘fundamentally misunderstood’ the data, according to the broadcaster.
MailOnline reached out to all seven companies as well as the Environment Agency in order for them to comment.