Bath-based water and sewerage company Wessex Water has again been named as an industry leader for environmental performance.
The Environment Agency’s annual EPA (Environmental Performance Assessment) report ranks water and sewerage companies on issues such as pollution incidents, biodiversity and their carbon footprint.
Only Wessex Water and Severn Trent received the top ranking of four stars, indicating a ‘leading’ company, in an otherwise critical report which saw four out of nine firms fall short of the agency’s expected standards.
Matt Wheeldon, Wessex Water’s Director of Assets and Compliance, said: “This report is a great reflection of the hard work and dedication of teams in all areas of our business.
“No other company has received the coveted four-star ranking as many times.”
Across England, the number of serious water quality pollution incidents from water companies’ sewerage and clean water assets fell slightly in 2019.
However the total number of pollution incidents increased, and Chair of the Environment Agency Emma Howard Boyd has said she will be holding meetings with all underperforming companies to discuss improving their poor performance.
She said: “We cannot transform water quality in the way we all want if water companies’ environmental performance continues to backslide.
“Severn Trent and Wessex Water show high performance is possible, and United Utilities have had no serious pollution incidents for the second year in a row, but the evidence suggests that the rest of the sector isn’t listening.”
