Thames Water top UK polluter, says govt body
Date: 01-Oct-01
Country: UK
The water company was fined 288,000 pounds in 2000 for pollution breaches after being hit for 319,000 pounds in 1999, the Environment Agency for England and Wales said in its annual pollution league table.
Other top polluters included well known companies like Railtrack , TotalFinaElf and Southern Water, owned by Scottish Power . The watchdog said these three companies ought to have "installations and inspection procedures of the highest standard."
The agency's chief executive, Barbara Young said fines were currently too low to deter polluters and failed to reflect the real environmental cost.
"Fines will need to substantially increase for businesses to understand the environment's true value", she said in a statement.
"With a few exceptions the scale of penalities levied by the courts makes pollution - and prosecution - an acceptable risk and an acceptable business expense for too many", Young said.
The number of prosecutions rose to 694 from 566 in 1999 and the average fine increased to 8,532 pounds from 6,800 pounds.
Total fines in 2000 amounted to just over three million pounds from just under two million pounds and six persons were sent to prison.
Young said she hoped issuing new guidelines in 2000 by the Magistrates' Association will mean higher fines and stricter penalities, noting the first two penalties exacted by the Office of Fair Trading for breaches of competition law were 1.2 million and 3.2 million pounds.
Young said the watchdog would continue to name and shame polluters, but that good performance should be recognised.
The agency highlighted substantial cuts in emissions of dioxins, sulphur dioxide (SO2) (down six percent), volatile organic compounds (down 12 percent) and particulates from power stations, and the chemical, mineral and metals industries.
The Environment Agency said the waste and water industries continued to feature in the prosecution and fines league tables and "clearly still need to do more to improve performance."