Water: Pollution
(asked on 21st June 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of reported pollution incidents of watercourses were officially investigated in each year for which data is available.
This is a devolved matter. For information on Wales the Honourable Member should contact Natural Resource Wales. In the last 10 years the following number of water pollution incidents have been investigated by the Environment Agency in England:
Year | Number of Category 1 & 2 Serious water pollution incidents | Number of Category 3 Minor water pollution incidents | Total number of incidents Category 1-3 causing water pollution |
2007 | 444 | 7838 | 8282 |
2008 | 378 | 7392 | 7770 |
2009 | 430 | 7855 | 8285 |
2010 | 336 | 8247 | 8583 |
2011 | 360 | 8144 | 8504 |
2012 | 293 | 7972 | 8265 |
2013 | 376 | 8109 | 8485 |
2014 | 361 | 6913 | 7274 |
2015 | 326 | 6037 | 6363 |
2016 | 314 | 6100 | 6414 |
2017 (to date) | 100 | 2962 | 3062 |
Total | 3718 | 77569 | 81287 |
These incidents, totalling 81,287 were all investigated and categorised as Category 1 Major, Category 2 Significant and Category 3 Minor impact.
Out of the confirmed water pollutions 3,718 were Category 1 and 2 serious incidents - the Environment Agency investigated all of these reports and attended on average 92%. There were also 77,569 minor incidents - the Environment Agency investigated all of these reports and has attended on average 49%. The Environment Agency investigates all reports of pollution incidents and make risk based decisions on the potential impact which determines site attendance.