A WATER company with the country's worst polluting track

record could soon be in charge of its own pollution tests.

South West Water along with other utility firms in the UK

are to take over water pollution sampling from the Environment

Agency.

At present the Agency is responsible for taking water

samples to check compliance of sewage discharge.

However, from April 2009, the Agency will bring in an

"operator self monitoring" system as part of a new "risk-based

approach".

There are fears that the new in-house pollution controls

would not be sufficiently monitored. A spokesman for the

Environment Agency said the move would give water companies

more responsibilities for the effluent discharges from their

own sewage treatment works.

Pete Baker, a technical advisor at the Environment Agency,

denied the initiative would hand over "complete responsibility

to the water companies or allow them to police themselves".

South West Water was recently branded the worst of Britain's

27 water firms for water pollution after being convicted 47

times in five years of unlawfully polluting the Westcountry's

rivers and beaches.

Following close behind in joint second place were Southern

Water Services and United Utilities with 40 convictions each,

while third was Thames Water Utilities with 30 convictions.

The company said its record had been improving since 2003

and there had not been any worst case scenario incidents of

pollution in the past five years.

A spokeswoman for the firm last week said that the majority

of pollution incidents had been connected with failures in the

sewerage infrastructure.

However, the idea water companies could take over some of

the Environment Agency's pollution testing, does not sit well

with everyone. They were fears the water firm could police

itself without due checks. Plymouth City Council councillor

John Lock, from the Plympton Erle ward, was affected this June

when a pipe blunder left 16,000 homes and businesses in the

Plymouth and south Dartmoor areas with polluted water.

He said the general public ought to be able to go above

South West Water and request that the Environment Agency

carries out further tests if they are not happy with the

results provided by the water company.

Coun Lock said: "Any result from South West Water ought to

be challenged. We shouldn't be accepting what the company says

at face value and the general public should be able to go to

the Environment Agency to challenge such results if they are

unhappy with the results."

Since the beginning of the year, SWW has paid out thousands

of pounds in compensation and has had to pay more than £30,000

in fines after pleading guilty to numerous offences of water

pollution.

In the Plymouth and south Dartmoor areas, customers were

offered a £15 payment for the inconvenience, with the cost

totalling £240,000. However, compensation to businesses is

expected to add at least £500,000 on to SWW's final bill.

Paul Conium, a spokesman for South West Water, said: "South

West Water already carries out self-monitoring for a number of

processes, such as UV disinfection – which we have

self-monitored since 1997.

"Implementation of self-monitoring is demanding and strictly

audited.

"The Environment Agency retain the right to carry out

independent inspections and audits and can act on any cause for

concern."