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Water Company Pays Lancashire Angling Club £30,000 In Damages.

3rd July 2008

United Utilities has agreed to pay the Rochdale & District Angling Society (RDAS) £30,000 in compensation after causing a series of flooding incidents dating back to 2003, which damaged The Lodges fishery. RDAS, who have owned the fishing rights at The Lodges since 1971, asked the Anglers' Conservation Association (ACA) to act on their behalf after being frustrated by a lack of interest from the Environment Agency and continued denials of wrong-doing from the utility.

Chlorinated water had been frequently pumped out of poorly maintained overflow pipes from the company's Buersil reservoir, down a hill and into the five pools that make up the fishery. The resultant flooding caused species such as carp, tench, rudd, roach, perch and trout to be washed into the nearby river and, on occasions, left them stranded and dying on the banks of the fishery. The flooding also eroded the hillside, dumping several tonnes of silt in the pools. The £30,000 will go towards restocking fish and dredging work to return the fishery to its previous state.

Bob Smith, the Fishery Manager at The Lodges, emphasised the importance of the fishery to local members: "Recently, we've encouraged kids to join the club as juniors. They took to the fishing so well that they even formed their own committee. The club members spent many hours working on the pools and the land around them, stocking with fish, planting trees and marginal or aquatic plants and making The Lodges a good habitat for wildlife." "Every time we rang United Utilities to see what had happened, they'd always say they'd look into it and we wouldn't hear anything again" he added. "At last, it now looks like the pollution will stop and we can get to work again on the fishery's habitat and ecosystem and, hopefully, we'll be able to see some improvements."

Dr Justin Neal, solicitor at the ACA commented: "When negotiations failed and United Utilities refused to accept liability or to provide documents relating to the maintenance of the reservoir - which, according to the utility, may have been destroyed - court proceedings were issued. Finally, the company agreed to settle the claim out of court, paying damages to the club towards dredging, restocking and habitat restoration. Importantly, United Utilities told the ACA that improvements had been made to the telemetry system at the reservoir - but it looks like it took the threat of a trial to commit them to the changes."

Mark Lloyd, Executive Director of the ACA said: "Some of the worst of the flooding from Buersil Reservoir happened in June 2006, a year in which many households in Lancashire were subject to a hosepipe ban and rivers in the North West were reduced to a trickle. I think everyone would expect water companies to be more responsible with such a precious resource, particularly in times of drought."

Tom Meyrick, Honorable Secretary of the RDAS added: "I would like to express our thanks to the ACA and, in particular, Justin Neal for the effort and hard work he has put in on our Society's behalf. Becoming members of the ACA is the best move we have made and I would urge all angling clubs to join them."

The ACA is currently fighting three other cases on behalf of its members against United Utilities, in Cheshire, Cumbria and Wales.

Environment Agency to hand over pollution monitoring to misleading water companies

8th April 2008

Severn Trent Water is facing a record £35.8m fine for deliberately providing false information to the regulator and the fact that Southern Water was fined £20.3m for similar offences earlier this year, the Anglers' Conservation Association has expressed its amazement that the Environment Agency is pressing ahead with plans to put water companies in charge of monitoring their own environmental performance. The Environment Agency has recently consulted on its Operator and Pollution Risk Appraisal (OPRA) and Operator Self Monitoring (OSM) proposals and reported the findings in a document entitled "greener business, healthier environment: consultation on regulating discharges to water". The essence of these proposals is that operators of sewage treatment and other potentially polluting works will now monitor their own performance rather than the Environment Agency. Not only was there widespread opposition amongst environmental NGOs to these proposals, but the water companies themselves seemed concerned that they would be saddled with additional costs. The ACA was particularly concerned that water companies could very easily cover up pollution incidents for which they might otherwise be fined by the Environment Agency and/or face civil claims from the ACA's team of in-house lawyers for damage to its members' fisheries. The Agency's response to these concerns was to claim blandly that: "we have taken these concerns and comments on board and are now confident that we have a scheme that will allow us to regulate in a fairer, more effective way." The ACA does not share that confidence. Mark Lloyd, Executive Director of the Anglers' Conservation Association said: "These plans - which seem to us as naive as expecting Premiership footballers to admit to their own fouls - are supported by none of the environmental NGOs and indeed few of the water companies themselves. The proposals seem to be driven by a desire to cut the EA's costs of regulation rather than to stop pollution getting into our water environment. Given that two water companies have this year been fined for deliberately providing false information to regulators, is it really sensible to entrust them now with monitoring their own environmental performance?" Copies of the Agency's Q&A document on OPRA and OSM and its response to the consultation are available on request as PDFs. The ACA's original response to the consultation is also available.