Pollution incidents

• There were 2,519 pollution incidents in the South West in 2008 - a 29% decrease on 2003.
• There were 9 substantiated Category 1 pollution incidents in the South West 2008, the third highest recorded by a region.
• Agriculture causes the most significant number of serious polluting events in the region.

Pollution events can cause acute and dramatic changes to the environment. The effect of pollution events on the environment depends on their severity, ranging from minor and localised effects to complete devastation for a number of years.

Pollution incidents, which can affect water, air and land, are described in terms of their impact. There are 4 main categories, which are:

• Category 1 (the most serious)
• Category 2 (significant but less severe than category 1)
• Category 3 (minor incidents)
• Category 4 (incidents with no environmental impact)

Members of the public report the majority of pollution incidents through the Environment Agency’s 24-hour pollution hotline – 0800 80 70 60.

The number of substantiated pollution incidents occurring in England and Wales have been reducing year on year from 25,156 in 2004 down to 19,174 in 2008.  A reduction of 24% in 5 years.

Similarly there has been a steady reduction in pollution incidents across the South West with a fall from 3,534 substantiated pollutions in 2004 to 2,519 in 2008. A decrease of 1,015 incidents or 29% in 5 years, a slightly larger decline than the national average.

In comparison to the other regions in England and Wales, the South West had the third highest number of incidents in 2008.  Incidents were highest in the Midlands (3,259) followed by the Anglian region (3,136).

There were a total of 73 Category 1 pollution incidents (the most serious type) in England in 2008, a decline of 37% on the 115 recorded in 2004.  There were 9 substantiated Category 1 pollution incidents in the South West 2008, the third highest recorded by a region behind Wales (15) and the North East (14).

The most common source of substantiated pollution incidents with some impact on the environment (category 1-3) were the water industry (18%), agriculture (13%) and domestic / residential premises (8%).  These premises accounted for 40% of incidents (507 of the total 1,266).

Agriculture causes the most significant number of serious polluting events in the region.  These can be broken down into the types of farm from which the pollution arose:

• Arable Farms - 3 incidents (two Category 1 and one Category 2)
• Beef Cattle Farms -  2 incidents (two Category 1 incidents)
• Dairy Farms - 12 incident (two Category 1 and 10 Category 2)
• Sheep Farms - 2 incidents (two Category 2 incidents)
• Other Sources - 2 incidents (two Category 2 incidents)

The water industry and the domestic and residential sector also account for a high proportion of minor pollution [category 3 incidents] but do not now feature as significantly in the more serious incidents.

Domestic and residential sector pollution incidents are usually caused by incorrect pipe work connections when instead of connecting ‘grey’ water discharges to the foul sewer they are connected into the surface water system that should only be carrying rain and roof water runoff.

• Environment Agency pollution pages