England’s Sewage-Infested Waters Spill Into Election Campaign

Dave Wallace is angry, And he is not alone. Up and down England there are people like the 54-year old fintech consultant devoting much of their time to something very basic: sewage. And in particular the water industry’s failure to prevent millions of liters of untreated sewage being pumped into rivers and seas.

In the summer months, with two other “citizen” scientists, Wallace tests the water every day in the River Thames near his home in the Oxfordshire market town of Henley-on-Thames. He says a quarter of his tests since May have found dangerously high levels of E. Coli — a bacteria that can cause severe stomach cramps and sickness — plus high levels of nitrates and phosphates that can be harmful to wildlife.

The river is central to the local economy around Henley. The town is preparing for its busiest week of the year hosting the internationally-renowned rowing regatta: a six-day event from July 2 that attracts 300,000 visitors, according to organizers. This year it coincides with the UK general election on July 4, something Wallace — a former open water swimmer who voted Conservative in 2019 — believes should be used to highlight the state of England’s waterways.

“For me the river is the top priority,” he says of the upcoming vote. “The river is emblematic of all the problems that we have in this country. It’s been allowed — through lack of oversight and regulation — to have the primary objective of the water industry as shareholder returns instead of actually running a decent company that’s environmentally aware.”

“Citizen scientist” Dave Wallace tests the water in the River Thames every day in his home town of Henley-on-Thames.
Photographer: Vivian Wan/Bloomberg

Wallace and retired environmental scientist Chris Szweda have been conducting their own daily tests for the levels of nitrates, phosphates and E. Coli.
Photographer: Vivian Wan/Bloomberg

An outflow from Thames Water’s Henley Sewage Treatment Works near Wallace’s testing site.
Photographer: Vivian Wan/Bloomberg

Up to now, most of the public concern around sewage in England’s waterways has focused on storm overflows across the wider sewer network. But Bloomberg analysis of Environment Agency data reveals that most of the spills upstream from Henley came from sewage treatment facilities, previously viewed as a lower risk source of sewage contamination. Treatment plants were responsible for 40% of all spills across England last year, pouring untreated sewage into waterways on average 64 times, over a combined 695 hours. That would add up to 29 days.

During periods of heavy rain, the extra rainwater, mixed with raw sewage overflows into a treatment work’s storm tank. Once the storm tank is full the sewage begins spilling into waterways — a procedure designed to protect homes and businesses from flooding but strictly controlled by permits issued by the Environment Agency. The storm tanks need investment to increase their capacity, to keep up with pressures from population growth as well as increases in extreme rainfall worsened by climate change.

Henley-on-Thames was denied official bathing water status by the government on a technicality earlier this year, otherwise it would have had to provide regular official water testing. Both Wallace and Thames Water, which is responsible for supplying water and sewage treatment in the area, have been conducting their own water quality tests for E. Coli ahead of the regatta.

Despite testing in different stretches of the Henley Mile — where the races take place — and on different schedules, both Wallace and Thames Water found similar results. At two of the three sites scrutinized, 25% of tests revealed more than 1,000 colony forming units of E. Coli per 100 milliliters of water, which is classified as poor by the Environment Agency.

Wallace blames the nearby sewage treatment works at Henley and Wargrave, though Thames argues that these haven’t had storm overflows operating since mid-May, and therefore the E. Coli must be coming from other sources such as farms or run-off from roads.

Thames Water — which has become something of a poster child for the failings of the UK water industry — has recently admitted that even during normal operations, the effluent coming out of the treatment works would be dangerous for bathers.

“There will be unsafe levels of contaminants from our normal discharge let alone our storm discharge because we don’t remove bacteria and pathogens from our normal treatment process,” said Andrew Scott, head of Wastewater Treatment at Thames Water in an interview in April with local Henley resident and TV wildlife presenter Steve Backshall.

“There is no disinfection because the Thames is not at this point considered a bathing water. Therefore our effluent is not safe and not safe to swim in,” he said.

Thames plans to upgrade the Henley Sewage Treatment Works to increase its capacity and reduce the need for untreated discharges in wet weather, according to a spokesperson. Construction, which is scheduled to begin next year, is expected to be complete by 2026.

Water - The New Election Battleground

On election day, Wallace plans to switch his vote to the centrist Liberal Democrats, which has made the fate of the waterways a focus of its campaign particularly in swing seats where there is anger over contamination. The party — a distant fourth in the national polls — has promised to overhaul the water industry and terminate the licenses of failing companies. It would replace them with debt-free non-profit organizations where any profits would be reinvested in the water system.

Wallace isn’t alone in switching his vote. Henley, a Conservative stronghold for nearly 140 years and with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Tory grandee Michael Heseltine among its previous MPs, looks set to swing to the Liberal Democrats for the first time, according to polling by YouGov, based on new constituency boundaries.

Pollution in England’s waterways is not the number one factor in voting decisions at this election. YouGov lists the environment and climate change as the fifth biggest factor with 14% of voters identifying it as a priority.

But in places like Henley the impact appears to be more direct. Polls show a Liberal Democrat advance all along the west part of the River Thames. The party is expected to gain as many as eight seats from the Tories, including Maidenhead, represented since 1997 by another former prime minister, Theresa May, and South Cotswolds, a new constituency created by boundary changes that covers an area that has been a Tory stronghold for the last 27 years.

Around 20 miles up the road from Henley, Thames Water is trying to build the controversial £2.4 billion Abingdon Reservoir, which many locals and the Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran oppose. The project has yet to get the green light from the government and a sweep of yellow across Oxfordshire on July 4 could make it even harder for Thames to get the backing it needs for a project it says is crucial to preventing drought in London and the south of England in the coming decades.

Leaking Raw Sewage

Ofwat, the industry watchdog, and The Environment Agency have been conducting separate investigations into whether the regional water companies have been systematically breaching their licenses by leaking raw sewage into waterways from treatment plants. There have been more spills this year than last, due to wetter weather and the need for storm overflows to operate when it rains heavily.

Ofwat has already told Thames, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water — three of the six companies being investigated — its findings. Publication of its results has been delayed until after the election.

Ofwat has the power to fine business divisions as much as 10% of their revenues in cases where they breach license conditions. Any such move would be a huge blow to a heavily indebted Thames Water which is fighting to avoid temporary nationalization.

Its shareholders have effectively walked away from the business, leaving serious questions about how it will raise the billions of pounds needed to fix chronic leaks and sewage spills. Without any new shareholder equity, the company only has enough liquidity to last until July 2025.

‘Ghost Town’

While Henley missed out, across the UK, there are 451 designated bathing sites. But even that doesn’t guarantee good quality water. It just means regular testing during the summer and warnings issued to swimmers after heavy rainfall.

Nearly 2,000 water users reported getting ill in the 12 months from October 2022, according to the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage. Almost two thirds of those reports were in bathing water that had been rated “excellent” by the Environment Agency.

Coastal swimming areas have even tougher pollution rules than inland rivers and lakes. Yet still, coastal sewage treatment works spilled on average 60 times each in 2023. The limit is just three.

Last year, high levels of E.Coli were discovered in oysters and mussels in Cornwall, leading to the closure of 11 waters known for shellfishing, with the Environment Agency blaming sewage discharges.

Surfers Against Sewage’s 2022 Water Quality Report estimated the total loss to the UK economy every year due to water-related sickness at £21.7 million.

So for towns like Whitstable, on the Kent coast, this is not just an issue of water safety — tourism is the lifeblood of the local economy.

“Pollution is a hell of a problem. If tourists can’t swim in the sea, there’s no point in them coming here. Take away the tourist trade and we’re finished,” said Philip Cartwright, a local resident.

“They’re building 2,000 more homes and if it carries on like this, Whitstable’s going to be carried away on a tidal wave of poo,” added the 67-year-old former Labour councilor. “Unless they improve the sewage arrangements here in Whitstable, it will be a ghost town, simple as that.”