South West Water told to fix 'scores of faults'
PA MediaSouth West Water (SWW) has been told to take action after the Environment Agency (EA) conducted more than 860 inspections and found "scores of faults".
The EA said as a result of the inspections, SWW had been told to take more than 250 actions to comply with its permits.
The authority said issues included screens to prevent solid waste entering water being missing, broken or blocked, leaking pipes and cracked tanks.
Richard Price, SWW's managing director of wastewater services, said the company had "positively engaged" with the EA during its inspections, with "no major or serious issues being raised across all sites visited".
'Drive meaningful improvements'
The findings come after the EA completed a record 10,000 inspections nationally in the last 12 months.
Of the SWW sites investigated, the EA said 76% were found to be compliant with their permits.
Helen Wakeham, EA's director for water said: "Inspections are a vital preventative measure, with our teams nationally issuing over 3,000 actions to water companies, including repairing sewage works and upgrading their infrastructure.
"Together, this will drive meaningful improvements in performance, hold persistent offenders to account and ultimately create a cleaner water environment."
The authority added that "although many breaches in permit conditions were relatively minor, in terms of potential for pollution to occur" they were "indicative of a water company's approach to managing and maintaining their operations to protect the environment".
Other issues identified at SWW found chopped sewage was at risk of flowing into water during storms, the discovery of seeping liquids, missing emergency pumps and generators, faulty monitoring equipment and general poor maintenance in places, resulting in blocked channels, overgrown vegetation and sludge.
Price said SWW was tracking and fixing improvement actions highlighted to the firm.
He said: "We have positively engaged with the Environment Agency this year to support each and every visit from our local officers, with three in four sites being recognised as fully compliant and no major or serious issues being raised across all sites visited. All other improvement actions are being tracked and fixed."
