South West Water Named Worst Polluter in England, Wales

South West Water has been named the worst water company in England and Wales for polluting the environment in 2003.

It is the second year in a row that South West Water (SWW) has topped the list compiled by the UK's Environment Agency.

It was prosecuted nine times in 2003, sharing the top spot with Southern Water.

The nine prosecutions are a decrease in the number of court appearances it had 2002, when it topped the table with 14 convictions.

Environmental pressure group Surfers Against Sewage said it was "woefully disappointed" with SWW's performance.

"There's a 40 percent improvement, but I think we need to get this into perspective," said South West Water's chief executive Bob Baty.

"We have 2,500 locations, such as beaches and rivers, where we are at risk of a pollution event occurring," he continued, "Yet we have the best bathing waters in the country, we have the highest quality of river water in England and we have a very good environmental record."

SWW has the highest water bills in the country, but Baty insisted that "the bills come from the mammoth investment improving what were formerly crude discharges into the environment around the coastline where we've spent £1.5bn."

"It is disappointing when failures do occur, but we have prevented some 250 crude discharges into the ocean taking place over the last 15 years," Baty concluded.

Source: BBC