Faulty sewage spill monitors spark accusations of ‘environmental cover up’ by water firms
Water firms have been accused of an “environmental cover up” as fresh figures revealed one in seven sewage monitors – meant to record spills – were faulty.
This rose to a third of devices for embattled Thames Water, which is facing the risk of emergency nationalisation as it wrestles with a deepening funding crisis.
The number of monitors not working properly has fuelled concerns the scale of the sewage scandal is far bigger than previously thought, further ramping up pressure on the utility firms and government.
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Why is sewage flooding streets?
It comes after separate figures showed dumping of raw sewage into England’s rivers and seas was the worst on record last year.
Discharges of untreated effluent by water companies doubled from 1.8 million hours in 2022 to 3.6 million in 2023, according to Environment Agency data.
The number of individual spills also soared by 54% – from 301,000 incidents in 2022 to 464,000 in 2023, which was blamed in part on the wet weather.
Campaigners argue the pumping of sewage into waterways is the symptom of chronic underinvestment by water companies.
In the face of public anger at widespread pollution, firms recently fast-tracked £180m of investment.
They also plan to invest £10bn by the end of this decade, which they say would lead to 150,000 fewer spills a year.
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Gove: Thames Water leadership a ‘disgrace’
But analysis by the Liberal Democrats found that 15% of all sewage monitors were faulty, prompting the party to demand a national environmental emergency to be declared.
The number and length of sewage dumps from storm overflows, which act as safety valves during heavy rain to stop sewage from backing up into people’s homes, is measured by event duration monitors (EDMs).
However, Lib Dem research has revealed water companies have installed monitors which do not work at least 90% of the time, or have not even installed devices at all.
Across England, there are 2,221 monitors not operating properly.
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The water company with the worst record on faulty sewage monitors was Thames Water, with 33% of its equipment not functioning as it should, according to the Lib Dem research.
The next highest were Southern Water and Yorkshire Water, which both recorded 18.5% of their monitors as faulty.
Some devices have been broken for two years.
Read more:
‘It stinks’: Sewage seeps into people’s gardens
Analysis: Why nationalising Thames Water won’t work
Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron said: “Water companies could be complicit in an environmental cover up. Why on earth would a firm install these monitors if they don’t even work?
“The scale of the sewage scandal could be even larger than originally feared and Conservative ministers are not interested in understanding the true extent of the damage our rivers and beaches are being put through.
“They have let water companies off the hook at every turn and are now letting them get away with not even monitoring the amount of filthy sewage that is being dumped.”
He added: “This scandal requires a national environmental emergency to be declared and for this Conservative government to start treating this issue with the focus that it needs.
“Their inaction has failed our environment and failed communities across the country.”
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A spokesperson for industry body Water UK said: “Water companies are committed to robust monitoring of storm overflows across England with all now monitored – the most comprehensive and extensive monitoring system in the world.
“Due in part to their operating outdoors and in all weather conditions, some monitors will occasionally be temporarily out of action while maintenance is under way.
“This has improved, and the regulator has taken tough new powers to ensure the highest standards.
“We are seeking regulatory approval to invest over £10bn over the next five years – three times the current rate – to increase the capacity of our sewers and remove more than 150,000 annual sewage spills by the end of the decade.”
The issue has become a political battleground, with Labour pledging to ban bonuses for water company bosses and the Greens wanting to renationalise the firms.
While Michael Gove, the former environment secretary-turned-housing secretary, said the leadership of Thames Water was a “disgrace” this week and insisted those responsible for failings must “carry the can”.
The lower house of Poland’s parliament failed to secure the required three-fifths majority to override President Karol Nawrocki’s veto of the Crypto-Asset Market Act, pushing the country further away from regulating its digital-asset sector at a moment when lawmakers argue that oversight is increasingly urgent.
As Bloomberg reported Friday, the legislation — advanced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government — was intended to align Poland with the European Union’s MiCA framework for crypto markets. The bill was introduced in June but did not survive the president’s veto.
Nawrocki blocked the measure last week, arguing it would “threaten the freedoms of Poles, their property, and the stability of the state,” as Cointelegraph previously reported.
With the president’s veto upheld, the bill will not move forward, forcing the government to restart its crypto lawmaking process.
The proposal has sharply divided lawmakers and the crypto industry. Supporters framed the bill as a national security priority, saying that comprehensive rules are necessary to curb fraud and prevent potential misuse of crypto assets by foreign actors, including Russia, according to Bloomberg.
However, several crypto-industry groups opposed the legislation, warning that its requirements were overly burdensome and could drive startups out of the country.
Critics pointed to stringent licensing rules, high compliance costs and criminal-liability provisions for service-provider executives, arguing that the bill risked stifling innovation and creating an uncompetitive business environment.
Related: EU plan would boost ESMA powers over crypto and capital markets
Crypto adoption in Poland ramps up amid regulatory pause
Cryptocurrency use in Poland continues to accelerate even as the country stalls on comprehensive regulation. Chainalysis recently identified Poland as one of Europe’s “large crypto economies,” noting that the country’s onchain activity has expanded significantly over the past year.
According to the company’s 2025 Europe Crypto Adoption report, Poland recorded more than 50% year-over-year growth in overall transaction volume.
Polish investors are also increasing their exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), reflected in a surge in Bitcoin ATM installations in recent years. In January, Cointelegraph reported that Poland had become the world’s fifth-largest Bitcoin ATM hub, surpassing even El Salvador — a country that has made Bitcoin a central element of its monetary and financial system.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
US attorneys representing the federal government have requested that a judge send Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to prison for 12 years at his sentencing hearing next week.
In a Thursday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, prosecutors asked that a judge sentence Kwon “to a term of twelve years’ imprisonment and finalize the forfeiture of his criminal proceeds.”
The filing came about four months after the Terraform co-founder pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud.
“In just a few years, Kwon caused losses that eclipsed those caused by Samuel Bankman-Fried […] Alexander Mashinsky […] and Karl Sebastian Greenwood [….] combined [emphasis included in filing],” said the Thursday filing. “The Terraform market crash triggered a cascade of crises that swept through cryptocurrency markets and contributed to what has since become known as ‘Crypto Winter.’”
Kwon, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday, was indicted by US authorities in March 2023 for charges including securities fraud, market manipulation, money laundering and wire fraud related to his role at Terraform.
Though his whereabouts were initially unknown after the collapse of Terra in 2022, authorities in Montenegro arrested him on charges unrelated to his role at the company, and he was later extradited to the US.
Related: South Korea targets sub-$680 crypto transfers in sweeping AML crackdown
The price of Terra’s native token, LUNA, surged by more than 40% in the previous 24 hours amid the release of the sentencing recommendation, from about $0.07 to $0.10 at the time of publication. However, the token reached an all-time high price of more than $19.00 before the ecosystem collapsed in May 2022.
Kwon says he could still face prison time in South Korea
In a November court filing, lawyers representing Kwon asked that the Terraform co-founder be given a sentence of no more than five years. His attorneys presented several arguments in favor of a shorter sentence, including that the co-founder could face 40 years in prison in his native South Korea, where prosecutors are also working on a case against him.
“He would not be able to walk out of jail in the United States as a free man for any amount of time: He will be taken from whatever facility in which he serves his sentence directly to an immigration detention center to await a deportation flight to Seoul, where he will immediately reenter pretrial detention pending his criminal charges in South Korea,” said Kwon’s lawyers.
Although Kwon’s and prosecutors’ respective recommendations will remain under consideration, the judge overseeing the sentencing hearing has the authority to sentence the Terraform co-founder to decades in prison, or a significantly shorter time. In contrast, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence after his conviction on seven felony charges, former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and a judge sent Karl Sebastian Greenwood to prison for 20 years for his role in the OneCoin scheme.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has suggested it could be beneficial for the UK to consider re-entering a customs union with the EU.
He said that although doing so was not the government’s current policy, he could see how other countries outside the EU had benefited from such arrangements.
“It’s self-evident that leaving the European Union badly damaged our economy, took us out of an important marketplace and created serious friction, that untruths were being peddled by those that thought exiting the EU would be a good thing,” Mr Lammy told the News Agents podcast.
“And it’s why every single day that I was foreign secretary, I returned to the subject of our relationship with the European Union.”
Asked repeatedly if he would like to see the UK in a customs union, he said: “That is not currently our policy. That’s not currently where we are.
“But you can see countries like Turkey with a customs union seemingly benefiting and seeing growth in their economy, and again, that’s self-evident.”
David Lammy meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara earlier this year, when he was foreign secretary. Pic: Turkish Foreign Ministry/Reuters
The Prime Minister’s economic adviser Minouche Shafik has also reportedly advocated behind the scenes for joining a customs union.
Mr Lammy’s comments were being taken as the clearest indication yet that the government is considering bringing the UK further back in line with the European Union.
But when Sir Keir Starmer was asked to respond and say why he was not advocating for membership given that growth is an ongoing priority for his government, he was quick to dampen down the speculation.
The prime minister said Labour would be sticking to its manifesto, which pledged to deepen ties with the EU without returning to the customs union, single market or freedom of movement.
“Well, the position that we are taking has been clearly set out in the manifesto, and then we’ve been following it,” Sir Keir said. “And earlier this year, we had the first UK-EU summit ever, and we had 10 strands for a closer relationship.
“So we’ve totally reset relations with the EU.
“That’s good for our economy, good for defence and security, good for the work that we need to do on energy.
Earlier a spokesperson for Number 10 said: “We are strengthening relations with the EU whilst sticking to our red lines.”
“The prime minister reiterated that on Monday evening at the Lady Mayor’s Banquet.”
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Starmer condemns ‘utterly reckless’ Brexit template
Sir Keir set out his foreign policy vision at the banquet, as is tradition.
He said the Brexit vote was a “fair, democratic expression” but the way it was “sold and delivered was wrong”.
“There’s no credible economic vision for Britain not positioning us as an open trading economy,” the Number 10 spokesman said.
“We have to be grown up about trade-offs. We have redefined bonds with EU and stuck to our red lines.”
On Mr Lammy’s comments, the spokesman added: “That is not our current policy or where we are.”
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