(Reuters) – Britain’s water regulator on Wednesday opened enforcement cases into five water companies including Thames Water, the country’s largest, as part of an ongoing investigation into wastewater treatment works.
The regulator had in December asked firms to submit information about how many of their sewage treatment works might not be meeting requirements in their environmental permits, and what they were doing to resolve them.
Ofwat said in a statement it has served formal notices to Thames Water, Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water, citing concerns about the firms’ responses to its queries on their sewage treatment operations.
Ofwat’s current focus is on concerns about aspects of these five companies’ submissions, it said.
“We will now dig deeper into what these five companies have been doing, with the prospect of formal enforcement against them if we find they are failing on obligations Ofwat enforces,” said Ofwat’s interim Chief Executive David Black.
Under Ofwat’s enforcement powers, the regulator could fine the companies up to 10% of their annual turnover.
($1 = 0.7621 pounds)
(Reporting by Muhammed Husain in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
