Agenda item

To receive an update from Anglian Water on Ofwat, Flooding, Pollution, Storm Overflows and Planning.

The Chairman welcomed Grant Tuffs, Regional Engagement Manager, Natasha Kenny, Head of Quality Regulation and Enforcement, and Lucy Hodge, Water Recycling Network Manager, from Anglian Water (AW) to the meeting. 

Members made comments, asked questions, and received responses as follows:

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough stated in the Ofwat 2023/24 report, the overall categorisation of AW was ‘lagging behind’ even the widely criticised Thames Water was considered ‘average’ and she found it shocking that AW were one of only three water companies to be ‘lagging behind’. She asked what is AW doing about this? Grant Tuffs responded, as stated in the presentation, AW accept that the performance in certain areas is not as good as it should be, and a 10-billion-pound proposed investment plan is in place to tackle some of those issues and the Performance Commitment Plan in the presentation outlines all those details which include climate change impacts. He continued the underperformance was justified and the 38-million-pound fine was a rebate which has been paid back to the customers which means next year customers will see a reduction in their water bills. Grant Tuffs stated that leakage has been reduced by 40% since the company was privatised and they are now industry leaders, there will be more money spent in the next cycle on smart meters to be able to find more leaks in customers properties and the aim is for every customer to have a smart meter fitted in their home by 2030, which will show a continuous flow in properties that can help identify leaks which can be fixed via the customer which is just one example of AW making some positive changes to increase the leakage performance. He added the Per Capita Consumption was another issue shown in the presentation, AW are one of the lowest in the industry, customers in Fenland are good at saving water mainly though the fact that the Fenland area is drought prone with a fragile infrastructure and water supply, there is a supply and demand approach in place to be able to supply enough water to people but in return AW ask people to use less of what is provided to save water and be more water efficient in their homes. Grant Tuffs explained that the water industry averages around 133 litres per day and is predicted to reach 159 litres by year 2025 with there being a 20-million-pound planned investment into water efficiency by 2030 to reduce further leakages and another 130-million-pound investment into the smart meter scheme. Natasha Kenny stated to support the Per Capita Consumption, AW are also seeking new innovative ways of being able to reduce water usage within the region, one example AW are working with the Environment Agency on enabling new regulations to allow some customers where it is appropriate and safe to use the final effluent from the water recycling centres, so where AW discharge effluent into the receiving water courses that water is clean enough to be discharged into the river and there may be opportunities for AW to use that within the industry where it is safe to do so instead of the industry using clean potable water, for example the local golf courses around the region could use the effluent water to water their greens instead of using the clean portable water. She added that AW are working with the Environment Agency to free up some opportunities to enable that to be used.

·         Councillor Hicks asked if it rains would the effluent water not run into the dykes and enter back into the water system again? Natasha Kenny agreed that this was correct and stated that it currently gets discharged into the water chains so regardless of whether it is coming straight out of the works and going straight into the river, it has got set limits and conditions it has to comply with, those set limits and conditions would also apply if AW are looking to discharge it into land so, therefore, the environment would still be protected.

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough made the point that when Grant Tuffs was speaking his voice dropped and she could not hear the reason why it was harder for AW to reach their targets than other water companies and asked him to explain this again. Grant Tuffs responded the example he gave was the leakage levels in which AW have the lowest levels in the UK so that the targets given are harder to reach, with other companies lagging with their previous leakage performance, so AW have historically been very good at targeting leakage and have invested over the decades in water resilience and leakages repairs and to improve the target AW are looking to invest satellite imagery and in meters in households plus other initiatives. He stated that the Cambridgeshire area is very different compared to other areas and this can prove challenging when looking at the geography and population being served and these are the facts that have to be taken into consideration when comparing AW with other companies in different areas. Councillor Sennitt Clough stated she would like to understand why it has taken so long to get to this point of finding all this technology, for example this satellite imagery as leaks are not a new thing for water companies. Grant Tuffs responded that AW have had to find the right way to spend bill payers money and prioritise the best way to deliver the best outcome for the customer, leakage is a top priority but so is environment protection and flooding pollution and AW have to make choices as to where to spend customers money as there is not the ability to increase water bills too much in this current cost of living crisis. Natasha Kenny added there is a lot of new technology coming out and AW are seeking ways in which to find out what technology is right for AW to use within the networks, when new technology is adopted there is a period of learning which involves millions of lines of data and all of that data needs to be validated in order to make it valuable and to ensure that there is the right expertise in place before this new technology can be adopted and used to deliver improvements to the service AW provides. Lucy Hodge provided an example stating that there are 22 thousand new monitors in the sewer networks with alarms that alert engineers if there is a blockage or a potential leakage problem and, for this to work effectively, the monitor has to assess the normal level of flow through the sewer first then once this is in place it works from the algorithms which can flag any potential problems and her team can act accordingly but the technology takes time to learn.

·         Councillor Booth stated he would like to understand more about how the finances are managed especially concerning the 7-billion-pound debt AW have and the fact that 24% of bill payers money is going towards servicing this debt plus 12.6 billion taken out in dividends for the shareholders, asking is the priority customers or shareholders? Grant Tuffs responded the financial model works in a way that the shareholder and private investors invest their money first which equals 10-million-pounds which is money invested in the long term and then returns are paid back through dividends and the assets of the projects. He stressed that AW shareholders are investing for the long term, and they always put the customer first. Councillor Booth acknowledged that the finances are a balancing act but there is still the case of the 7-billion-pound debt since privatisation which does raise questions about the service provided.

·         Councillor Sennett Clough commented the Ofwat reports states that AW ‘show concerning underperformance on WRMP delivery for a third consecutive year’ and failure to ‘meet the performance commitment level for four consecutive years. She asked why has there been under performance for three consecutive years regarding the company’s Water Resources Management Plan and four years in regard to pollution incidents commitment levels? Grant Tuffs responded the company’s Water Resources Management Plan was affected by many factors in the last few years with Covid increasing the per cap consumption point because more people were at home using more water which affected the performance, then there were the severe weather storms in 2022 which increased leakage and the war in Ukraine affected the supply chain to get pipes across to build the water pipeline as quickly as originally planned, but all of those issues are being addressed in the new plan mentioned in the presentation. Natasha Kenny commented there is a Pollution Incident Reduction Plan in place, which has identified several areas in which AW want to focus on improvements. She continued this system has been in place for a while and AW recognise that improvements need to be delivered as the company is currently sitting at a 2-star rating on the environmental performance assessment, there are several area of improvement which are being addressed such as targeting maintenance and resilience programmes, bolstering detection in each catchment area and looking at pressure devices and the potential for a mains burst. Natasha Kenny stated that AW are proactively monitoring across the catchment areas and making informed decisions, plus delivering operational control standards and ensuring they are fit for today’s standard, alongside this AW are looking to improve the operational excellence making sure all of the people who deal with and look at pollution across the catchment area have got the right skills to make sure they can problem solve or escalate if there are any issues. She added in reference to the 100-million-pounds shown in the presentation that the investors are reinvesting into the pollution focus, 32 million of that is about focusing on health interventions and asset improvements, 17 million on improving system capacity, 22 million on improving rising mains, 22 million on blockage prevention and 7 million on improving capability and insight across the teams.

·         Councillor Hicks stated he understands AW are doing well with leakage now. Grant Tuffs responded that AW are leading in the industry on leakage detection and repair but there is always more to be done. Councillor Hicks continued the reason he asked is because recently there was a water leak in March Town and from reporting it to getting it repaired took two months in total, why did this take so long? Grant Tuffs stated that any job which comes in is prioritised on urgency and then a team is deployed accordingly. Councillor Hicks stated that the leak in March Town was a big leak and now there is a second leak which has been reported, will this take as long? Grant Tuffs indicated he will investigate.

·         Councillor Nawaz stated it was interesting to hear that money is being invested yet the same problems keep occurring year after year concerning dead fish, fats, leakages etc. He continued considering AW are aware of this is there a case for regular servicing of these networks on an annual basis in the interest of prevention and he would also like to understand more about the nutrients within sewage. Natasha Kenny responded when using the nutrients within sewage the process works where AW are issued a discharge permit from the Environment Agency and those conditions in the permit drives how the incoming sewage is treated, and the water recycling centre will be built for investing in delivering those targets before the discharges are released into the environment. She stated there are 2 ways the sewage leaves the treatment site, one stream is the final effluent which discharges to the water course and those limits within the permit will determine the standards expected to protect the ecology of the receiving water course, within that discharge there may be a small amount of nutrients which get lost to the river but there is potential for those nutrients within the discharge to be used if that final effluent were to be discharged onto land to irrigate golf courses, which means that the golf club owners would not need to use fertilizers as there is natural nutrients within them. Natasha Kenny continued the other stream that comes off the sewage treatment process is the sludge and the sludge is taken away to one of the sludge treatment centres, it is heated up for a set period of time to remove the pathogens and the harmful bacteria within it, that sludge is then dried out into a biosolid and then that biosolid will be transferred under license to agricultural land and used as a biological nutrient product on land, which is permitted by the Environment Agency. Councillor Nawaz commented that it does contain lots of valuable nutrients but is does also contain lots of toxic chemicals so how can the public be sure that all toxins have been filtered out? Natasha Kenny responded AW act as a regulator for any upstream non-domestic discharges into the catchment area, there are a list of hazardous substances that are published on the Environment Agency website and AW have a duty to comply with any of the standards set out in relation to those hazardous substances so if it known there is a high risk trader that wants to connect into the sewage network AW will carry out an assessment under the trade effluent scientific team to determine, using models, how much of the treatment process will remove those harmful contaminants and, if the treatment process cannot remove those harmful contaminants then AW will make sure that when permission is given to that trader to discharge into the sewer network they are issued with a trade effluence consent under the rules of the Water Industry Act which will have set conditions within that permit so those harmful chemicals are not discharged into the catchment area which allows AW to know that what is discharged into the rivers or within the biosolids does not contain harmful levels of any contaminants. She added that these sites are monitored regularly and if they do not comply with the regulations AW will prosecute. Councillor Nawaz asked how many traders have AW prosecuted? Natasha Kenny replied one trader was taken to court last year and they were prosecuted and fined. Councillor Nawaz asked in view of what has been talked about at this meeting what steps will be taken to prevent leakages with toxic substances in them including contagion into the waterworks? Natasha Kenny replied AW will continue to take their role seriously as a regulator under the Water Industry Act and AW will make sure there are surveillance systems and good regulation in place to performance manage traders to prevent harmful chemicals entering into the system and that traders are performing in line with their trades.

·         Councillor Nawaz stated it was mentioned that AW are not a statutory consultee in individual cases or in larger developments, how can the local planning department help assist in regulating illegal connections? Grant Tuffs responded AW planning team do work closely with local planning officers and make requests for conditions to be put on planning applications.

·         Councillor Booth stated a few years ago O&S raised the concerns around low pressure in the rural villages, particularly to the South and West of Wisbech, following that meeting there was evidence of some pipe replacement work, but in the presentation, there was no evidence of this work continuing in the future for investment in new pipework within the surrounding villages. Grant Tuffs responded the scheme which was recently completed this year in Friday Bridge has reduced the calls about low pressure in the area, all systems are monitored all of the time and any changes in pressure will flag up on the radar and if an investment is needed in that area then AW have the ability within the next business plan to divert funds to target any possible areas around pressure over the next five years. Councillor Booth asked for evidence of the business plan once it is finalised.

·         Councillor Carney asked what the relationship was like between AW and Highways because in his experience there have been times when a problem has been reported to AW and they have said it is Highways responsibility and vice versa and he would like to understand how this can be rectified. Lucy Hodge stated that this is something which is being investigated as part of AW multi-agency groups, meetings have been set up and Highways are attending every month, AW and Highways have attended site visits together and have picked up on several points in their particular areas to act on.

·         Councillor Hay stated that in the report it says that AW have submitted a storm overflow action plan to DEFRA to ensure that they are not discharging more than 10 times a year. She added that this is said to occur during high rainfall and due to the age of the sewers, and also the type of sewers, namely the combined sewers that take both sewage and rain water, the aim is to get this down to 10 times or less a year and asked what is the average discharge at this present time and how many of these combined sewers are in the district and she would also like to know what plans do AW have to replace these types of sewers? Natasha Kenny responded Fenland have 18 storm overflows within the catchment and currently for 2024 the average spill per storm overflow is 29, the raw data is still being collected and verified so this is a draft figure of 29 as an average. She stated that over the next five-year investment period AW are looking at the best way in which to reduce spills by looking at alternative storage systems with the resilience to retain that 10 spills target. Councillor Hay asked if there was a report of a spillage would AW replace the pipes with an updated system? Natasha Kenny replied yes that would be possible providing the funds were available as some of the money is for maintenance and some is for enhancement, which does include storm overflows.

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough asked if phosphorus was the cause of the EA category 1 incident in September where almost 1000 fish and other wildlife died? Natasha Kenny responded that this case was not to do with phosphorus and the reason AW are investing in reducing phosphorus across the Anglian region is because when phosphorus is discharged to water courses it encourages alga growth in the rivers and that alga growth can cause oxygen depletion within the rivers and that makes it difficult for invertebrates and other wildlife to thrive in that type of environment so, therefore, the removal of phosphorus will enable AW to deliver an environmental enhancement e.g. it will reduce the amount of alga growth in rivers which will enhance the ecology in the rivers. Grant Tuffs stated that, regarding the incident in September, AW are one of several that discharge into that water course and the investigation is still ongoing.

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough asked if the incident last year in Whittlesey was due to the algae? Natasha Kenny responded when phosphorus is discharged into the water it has a long-term impact and is a gradual issue, but when there is a pollution event that can cause immediate low oxygen levels or high ammonia levels, which has an immediate impact on the wildlife.

Members noted the information provided and agreed that further questions will be sent to Anglian Water for answering after the meeting and added to the action plan.