B Improvement Programmes and Enforcement Action
- reporting on outcome of enforcement action initiated in 1998, and detailing enforcement action initiated in 1999.
Improvement programmes
B.1 Programmes of remedial action by water companies are in progress to improve drinking water quality where necessary. Many programmes are associated with undertakings given under section 19 of the Water Industry Act 1991 to carry out improvements to deal with breaches of the water quality standards by a specified date. Some programmes are associated with conditions of the relaxation of standards authorised by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and the National Assembly for Wales, ("the Authorities") under regulation 4(1)(c). Other programmes are the subject of Enforcement Orders made under Section 20 of the Act.
B.2 Current undertakings have been given by companies as a result of consideration of enforcement action arising from either technical audit or assessment of drinking water quality incidents by the Inspectorate. Illustration of this process is given in the paragraphs below. Relaxation of the standards may be authorised, as explained in paragraph 12 of Part 2 below.
B.3 During the inspection of companies, and periodically throughout the year, the Inspectorate has made an assessment of the progress with each scheme to check that it is on target to meet the dates specified in the undertaking or the conditions of relaxations or the Enforcement Order. A summary for each company of general progress with all its improvement programmes extant in 1999 is given in the individual company sections in Part 2. A total of 48 individual schemes associated with undertakings, were due either for full completion or completion of intermediate steps during 1999. Of these schemes, 46 were completed on or ahead of time. For the other two schemes the company gave new undertakings, containing revised completion dates, which were accepted by the Authorities.
Distribution system undertakings
B.4 Undertakings have been accepted from most water companies to carry out further improvements to their distribution systems for water quality driven requirements, to secure and facilitate compliance with the standards for iron, manganese, PAH and other relevant parameters. The steps to be taken specified in those undertakings continued to apply during 1999. These improvement programmes deal with the current tranche of priority distribution work up to 31 March 2000. A strategy has been drawn up by each company, which incorporates the requirements of pre- and post-renovation assessment (PPRA). PPRA is a methodology developed by the Inspectorate for companies to demonstrate justification for the work and the benefits that arise. Progress during 1999 with the implementation of the improvement programmes has been generally satisfactory. Audits were conducted during the period to ensure that the steps to be taken and completion dates continue to be appropriate, and that the companies' strategies are being implemented. Details are provided in Part 2 of this report. Arrangements were also made during 1999 for the outstanding renovation work necessary to complete improvements to distribution systems during the AMP3 period and beyond.
B.5 During 1999 the Inspectorate issued advice and guidance to water companies on requirements relating to distribution system work in DWI Information Letters:
- IL 4/99: "1998 data returns for distribution system undertakings".
- IL 17/99: "Distribution system undertakings: 1999 data returns and arrangements for current and new undertakings".
Both Letters dealt with arrangements for data returns. IL 17/99 also dealt with administrative arrangements for the completion of undertakings for the period 1995-2000, and for any new Undertakings required for outstanding renovation for the period 2000 up to 2010.
B.6 During the period, Mr Colin Evins, consultant, provided the Inspectorate with expert advice and assistance on distribution system matters, and, in particular, on issues relating to PPRA. John Champion Consultants, Ewan Associates, Parkman Ltd and RPS Water Services were appointed to provide assistance with technical audit of various issues linked to the implementation of distribution system undertakings. The findings of the technical audits were provided in individual reports to companies audited.
Enforcement action - its significance
B.7 As explained in greater detail in the Introduction to this Report, the duty of water undertakers to supply wholesome water and the provisions of Parts IV to VII of the Regulations are enforceable under section 18 of the Water Industry Act 1991 by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and the National Assembly for Wales,("the Authorities") who are required to take enforcement action in respect of contraventions unless they are satisfied that a contravention is trivial, is unlikely to recur, or that the company has already given an undertaking to take steps to secure or facilitate compliance with the requirements.
B.8 Consideration of enforcement action against a water company is thus the first step in a legal process which can ultimately reach a court of law unless the company either demonstrates that the contravention is unlikely to recur - usually by reference to remedial work - or submits a legally enforceable undertaking which is acceptable to the Authorities. In many cases, the notification that enforcement action is under consideration can be withdrawn following demonstration by the company that remedial action has already been taken. In other cases, undertakings to carry out improvements are promptly submitted to the Authorities. Where a company does not fulfil its obligations under an undertaking, or an undertaking is no longer appropriate, the duty to take enforcement action arises again. In such circumstances it may be necessary to move to a provisional or final enforcement order. Before making an enforcement order it is a requirement that a formal notice of intention to make an order be served on the company and that the notice be duly published with a minimum of 28 days for representations or objections.
Enforcement action in 1998 - an update
B.9 Chapter 6 of "Drinking Water 1998" contained tables summarising the enforcement action under consideration by the Inspectorate as a result of the 1998 technical audit of companies. The following paragraphs and tables show the outcome of those considerations.
B.10 Table B.1 summarises the position, as at 31 March 2000, of enforcement action considered in respect of contraventions of water quality standards in water supply zones, as a result of investigation of incidents or the 1998 technical audit. Of the 17 key parameters which have been considered in Parts 2 and 3 of this Report, enforcement was considered in 1998 in respect of coliforms, colour, turbidity, hydrogen ion, nitrate, nitrite, aluminium, iron, manganese, lead, PAH, trihalomethanes and individual pesticides - no enforcement action was necessary in respect of the parameters faecal coliforms, odour (quantitative), taste (quantitative) and total pesticides. The table shows, for each parameter, the number of zones for which companies either completed satisfactory remedial action or gave assurances acceptable to the Authorities that breaches would not recur, so that it became unnecessary for the Inspectorate to progress the enforcement action under consideration for the zones concerned. Where satisfactory remedial action or assurances were not immediately forthcoming for some or all of the zones in respect of which enforcement action was considered, companies have submitted undertakings for consideration by the Authorities.
Table B.1 Enforcement Action 1998 in Respect Of Breaches of Regulation 3(3) relating to water quality in supply zones.
Zones with:
column II: enforcement action considered;
column III: satisfactory remedial action or assurance;
column IV: undertakings submitted;Parameter II III IV Coliforms 10 6 4 Colour 2 1 1 Turbidity 2 0 2 Hydrogen ion 7 4 3 Nitrate 1 0 1 Nitrite 10 6 4 Aluminium 2 0 2 Iron 5 0 5 Manganese 5 2 3 Lead 22 14 8 PAH 4 2 2 Trihalomethanes 39 15 24 Individual pesticides 6 0 6 B.11 Table B.2 gives a corresponding summary in respect of breaches in 1998 of regulation 3(7) relating to water quality in service reservoirs and of water leaving treatment works. Table B.3 summarises the position in respect of the breaches of other enforceable regulations.
Table B.2 Enforcement Action 1998 in Respect of Breaches of Regulation 3(7) relating to water quality in service reservoirs and of water leaving treatment works.
Number of treatment works/service reservoirs with:
column II: enforcement action considered;
column III: satisfactory remedial action or assurance;
column IV: undertakings submitted;Parameter II III IV Water treatment works Coliforms 18 16 2 Faecal Coliforms 2 2 0 Service reservoirs Coliforms 9 7 2 Faecal coliforms 3 3 0 Table B.3 Enforcement Action 1998 in Respect of Breaches of Other Enforceable Regulations
Columns II to IV show the number of Companies in the following categories:
column II: companies for which enforcement action was under consideration;
column III: companies which completed satisfactory remedial action or which have given assurances that the breach will not recur;
column IV: companies which have submitted undertakings;Regulation II III IV 13 - sampling - zones 1 1 0 14 - further sampling provisions 1 1 0 17 - sampling - works 1 1 0 18 - sampling - service reservoirs 1 1 0 21(2)(c) - sampling integrity 1 1 0 21(2)(d)(iii) - analytical systems 1 1 0 23 - failure to disinfect 1 0 1 25 - approval conditions 1 1 0 29 - Public Record 1 1 0 Enforcement action in 1999
B.12 Tables B.4, B.5, and B.6 show the enforcement action considered as a result of the technical audit of water companies in 1999 or as a result of the completion in 1999 of the assessments of water quality incidents. More details of any enforcement action under consideration for a particular company, and a tabulated summary of the separate instances of breaches of regulations giving cause for the enforcement, can be found in the relevant section of Part 2.
Table B.4 Enforcement Action, 1995 - 1999, in Respect of Breaches of Regulation 3(3) relating to water quality in supply zones
Parameter Zones with enforcement action considered in: 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 Coliforms 1 10 (a)17 10 10 Faecal coliforms 3 0 0 1 3 Colour 0 2 0 0 (b)1 Turbidity (f)2 2 2 6 5 Odour 1 0 0 0 0 Taste 0 0 0 1 1 Hydrogen ion 4 7 6 3 2 Nitrate 3 1 1 2 0 Nitrite 0 10 5 16 55 Aluminium 4 2 1 0 0 Iron (e)(f)18 5 18 9 4 Manganese (e)4 5 5 3 3 Lead 16 22 39 (c)28 (d)3 PAH 0 4 31 17 2 Trihalomethanes 18 39 7 1 0 Total pesticides 0 0 0 0 0 Individual pesticides 0 6 8 1 7 Phosphorus 1 0 0 0 0 Benzo 3,4 pyrene 0 0 0 4 0 Trichloroethene 0 0 1 0 0 TOTAL ITEMS 75 115 141 102 96 (a) Includes a total of seven zones where enforcement action arose through the assessment of incidents.
(b) Colour enforcement arose through assessment of an incident from 1994 - not compliance assessment in 1995.
(c) Does not include zones affected by Final Enforcement Order.
(d) Enforcement action for lead arose through re-assessment of lead results from 1993 and 1994.
(e) Enforcement action for two zones for iron and one zone for manganese arose through the assessment of incidents.
(f) Enforcement action for one zone for iron and one zone for turbidity arose through the assessment of an event.Table B.5 Enforcement Action 1995 - 1999 in Respect of Breaches of Regulation 3(7) relating to quality of water leaving treatment works and in service reservoirs.
Parameter Enforcement considered in: 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 Water treatment works Coliforms 22 18 16 18 10 Faecal coliforms 6 2 4 4 1 Service reservoirs Coliforms 11 9 12 11 17 Faecal coliforms 3 3 6 2 11 Table B.6 Enforcement Action, 1995 - 1999, in Respect of Breaches of Other Enforceable Regulations.
Parameter Number of companies for which enforcement considered in: 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 10 - general provisions for monitoring 0 0 0 0 1 13 - sampling - zones 0 1 6 1 1 14 - sampling further provisions 0 1 0 0 0 17 - sampling - works 2 1 1 0 1 18 - sampling - reservoirs 2 1 1 0 0 21(2)(a) - representative sample 0 0 0 1 1 21(2)(c) - sample integrity 0 1 0 1 0 21(2)(d) - analysis "as soon as may be'' 2 0 0 0 1 21(2)(d) - analysis "deficiencies in the analytical systems" 1 0 0 0 0 21(2)(d)(iii) - analytical systems 1 1 0 4 2 23 - failure to disinfect 0 1 0 0 0 25 - approval conditions 0 1 0 0 0 29 - public record 3 1 1 1 0 30 - provision of information 0 0 0 2 2 30(5) - "failure to notify" 0 0 1 0 0 Water Undertakers (Information) Direction 1992 Paragraph 5/1998 Paragraph 9 "failure to notify" 1 0 0 1 3 Comparison of enforcement action, 1995-1999
B.13 The circumstances in which enforcement action has to be considered are described above in paragraph B.7. For the most part, those circumstances, and the means whereby the Inspectorate identifies them, have not changed since the commencement of the current regulatory arrangements with the coming into force of the major part of the Regulations in September 1989. It is instructive to compare the extent of enforcement action considered for companies in each of the previous five years. A full discussion of the scope and limitations of such comparison was given in Chapter 6 of "Drinking Water 1992".
B.14 The number of zones for which enforcement action was initiated in 1999 showed a marked decrease for the second successive year. Particularly noteworthy is the reduction in the number of zones for which enforcement was required for contraventions of the coliform standard from 10 or more each year from 1995 to 1998 to a single zone in 1999. The other parameter for which a marked reduction occurred is THM although the number was still higher than in the years 1994 to 1997. Chapter 6, Paragraph 8.33 of Drinking Water 1998 attributed the increase in contraventions of the THM standard to delayed leaching from soils of organic matter after drought. This mechanism is likely to diminish over time. The number of zones considered for enforcement of the lead parameter reduced for the third consecutive year. The reduction was probably due to the installation of treatment for plumbosolvency and optimisation of hydrogen ion parameter as a consequence of enforcement in previous years. The new Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC) has removed fluoranthene from the PAH parameter. Similarly, the standard for nitrite in water supply zones has been effectively relaxed by the adoption of a formula which has to be met when nitrite and nitrate occur together. In these circumstances the Inspectorate has indicated to companies that providing the revised standards in the new Directive are not exceeded it is not appropriate to initiate enforcement action or require companies to carry out remedial action pending the passing of new Regulations to implement the new Directive. This has contributed to the reduction in the numbers of zones considered for enforcement for these two parameters. The number of zones in which enforcement action was considered during 1999 for the 17 key parameters was the lowest since the Regulations came into force in 1990. The number of items of enforcement in respect of breaches of regulation 3(7) has increased despite the overall improvement in water quality at treatment works and service reservoirs as a whole. The number of contraventions of other regulations generating items of enforcement action has increased this year primarily in respect of sampling, analysis and the public record.
B.15 The reduction over the past five years in the number of instances in which enforcement action has been considered reflects the effectiveness of the enforcement process and the continuing general improvement in the already very high level of compliance with the standards.
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Published 12 July 2000; Updated 11 July 2001
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