Yorkshire Water breached Environment Agency permits over 250 times in past two years
Yorkshire Water has committed a string of more than 200 Environment Agency permit breaches over the past two years - including sewage being discharged into a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Yorkshire Post investigation has revealed.
A document released to this newspaper by the Environment Agency under Freedom of Information laws revealed that Yorkshire Water breached its permits 259 times, and received a total of 146 warnings between June 1 2022 and June 21 2024.
Yorkshire Water also breached its permits by discharging sewage materials outside its allocated permits at least 89 times in the period.
Water companies are allowed to discharge materials from combined sewage systems – the systems which contain a mix of waste from toilets and rainwater – during times of heavy rainfall.
The Environment Agency, however, listed multiple accounts of Yorkshire Water making such discharges in dry weather or non-emergency situations, in some cases due to blockages in pipes or pump failures.
Yorkshire Water said it was unable to “replicate” the numbers provided by the Environment Agency through its own data. The company did not confirm what it believes to be the correct figures.
A spokesperson said: “We have approximately 145,000 permit conditions covering a wide range of factors to comply with in the operation of our wastewater network. Many of these instances were reported by us to the Environment Agency as part of our commitment to operator self-monitoring standards.”
Yorkshire Water said it was also investing £180m by April 2025 to reduce the number of discharges from its most frequently operating overflows, and had submitted plans to invest over £1bn between 2025 and to 2030 to further reduce the operation of overflows throughout the region.
Information from the Environment Agency showed that between April 3 and April 19 2022, Yorkshire Water was given a warning for discharging outside a storm event on 955 occasions at an average of 20 seconds per discharge, totalling over 5 hours across the period. The Environment Agency listed this as taking place at “unknown sites”.
On May 11, last year, Yorkshire Water was issued with a warning from the Environment Agency for what the agency listed as a “discharge of sewage into a riverine Site of Special Scientific Interest” at Stamford Bridge, near York.
Councillor Andrew Cousins, who represented Stamford Bridge, said that such events “should not be happening in the 21st century”, adding that the nearby area is managed to encourage wildlife.
Yorkshire Water said that the discharge occurred due to a blockage in the Stamford Bridge South sewage pumping station, caused by a “foreign object”.
The company said it received an alarm at around 3pm on the day of the incident, and rectified the issue just after 5pm, adding that the discharge was resolved “very quickly with minimal impact to the watercourse”.
Charles Watson, chair of the environmental group River Action, said “all eyes” will now be on the new government to fulfil its pledges on holding water companies to account.
Speaking on industry-wide issues, he added: “We’ve got to have intervention by the government. These aren't one off instances, this is a systemic failure of an industry.”
A Government spokesperson said new legislation is being planned to crack down sewage discharges and added: “We share the public’s anger on this issue”.