British Wastewater Utilities Accused Of Overcharging More Than 20 Million Ratepayers
Some of the most prominent drinking water and wastewater treatment companies in Europe are now facing allegations of defrauding millions of customers, facing monumental fines if found guilty.
“Severn Trent Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water could end up paying over £800 million in compensation to more than 20 million customers,” Metro reported. “[An environmental and water consultant] alleges they have been underreporting the number of sewage discharges, resulting in customers being ‘unfairly overcharged’ for wastewater services, and that had sewage discharge reporting been accurate it would have lowered customer bills.”
The UK utilities are accused of breaking the country’s competition laws, which would require that they accurately disclose their sewage discharges and tailor their service rates around these.
“The number of pollution incidents a company reports, and any breaches to permits attached to water treatment plants to control raw sewage releases, are actors in determining the price water companies can charge for their services,” The Guardian explained. “The claims say customers have been overcharged because the companies abused their monopoly positions. They failed to fully report the scale of raw sewage discharges into rivers and seas, and in doing so avoided penalties which would have had an impact on the price they could charge customers, the claim alleges.”
Drinking water and wastewater treatment operations across the pond are already facing existential financial management and discharge problems, including billions of dollars of debt and widespread sewage spills. Industry representatives in the UK have denied that ratepayers are entitled to any compensation for alleged overcharging.
As these prominent British utilities defend their practices in the face of significant accusations, it seems that they can hardly afford another major setback in maintaining public trust.
To read more about how drinking water and wastewater utilities charge customers for their services, visit Water Online’s Funding Solutions Center.