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00:17They're allowed to dump untreated sewage but that can't be right. There's
00:22something weird about this. Think that's poo? Of course it's not poo. Wash it up,
00:28Robbie. Heather's brain has lost the ability to control her vital organs. I think it's time we
00:32consider turning off her ventilators. We've got to get this to the Environment Agency. They're the
00:37sewage police. We want to strip out as much unnecessary regulation as possible. They make
00:43Delboy look like a fucking amateur. When the everyday flows are missing, they're not treating
00:48the sewage. And if they're not treating the sewage, there's nowhere for it to go. Except into the river.
00:53Regulate yourselves and then just let us know if you've committed any crimes.
00:58They've dumped sewage a thousand times. These aren't accidents. It's a policy.
01:04This is starting to look like organised crime.
01:07Fuck!
01:10It's only now that it's coming to light. Thank goodness for the People's Regulator,
01:15Peter Hammond. Thank you. Thank goodness for Ash. Thank goodness for the public who are standing
01:20up and showing you what's really going on. Hi, Amy Christopher's Citizens Against Southwest Water.
01:36When Peter decoded these spreadsheets, we realised that the company had been dumping sewage into our
01:45river for years. Me and the machines, we are now investigating hundreds, hundreds of these
01:57sewage works using the data from each one of them. You know, they've got to go down to, um,
02:05Whitstable this weekend. What, Saturday? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:11They've got these two people who've been working at the agency. It says that the
02:15Southern Water solicitors have been threatening them.
02:20Oh, you know about Charles and Camilla?
02:23Charles and Camilla were coming down for the Whitstable Oyster Festival, right?
02:29But when they tested him, they were so full of shit, they had to give them oysters imported from France.
02:35All over the local news. Whitstable's oysters under threat from sewage leaks.
02:40Sewage spills threaten to wipe out Whitstable's oyster farmers.
02:43People were very fucked off.
02:48Look at the amount of efferent.
02:53So, Southern Water, you're not releasing sewage into the sea.
02:57And by then, the Environment Agency had no choice. They had to launch an investigation.
03:02You made a mistake of putting us in charge. We're the ones in the trenches.
03:06We take things seriously. There are still a few of us left.
03:08But we had no clue what we were letting ourselves in for, did we?
03:11All right. Yeah. What have you done?
03:14Pulled my back out this morning. Hello?
03:19Hello, it's John Bull from the Environment Agency. Have you got an appointment?
03:22Tell... tell them I'm waving. Tell them I'm waving.
03:26Beger. Go on. Go on. Right. Jump up and down.
03:29All right. That's it. I'm not... I'm not... Honestly, I can't stand up for too long today.
03:33Sit down, mate. We know you're in there. We are not leaving. We have an appointment.
03:37It's now cheese mayo spring onion. Almost looks like one word, then.
03:44Press one. To speak to no one. Press two.
03:47To speak to no one. To speak to no one.
03:49Press three. To give up all hope.
03:54Same bollocks every works we went. Chichester. Millbrook. Slow Hill. Fulham.
04:00So many times just refusing us entry. Sometimes it just snatched the log books right out of our hands.
04:06Or just tell us to fuck off.
04:08When you get chicken from a supermarket, it's got the plastic covering on, right?
04:12Yeah. Lift that off, leave it for a few minutes, because it automatically smells of fish.
04:18And people get scared, think they're going to get food poisoning. That's when they throw it away.
04:21But if you leave it for a bit, let the air come out, right?
04:24I don't know. It just smells of chicken. Then you can cook it.
04:27Oh.
04:29Hiya. Miss Humphries?
04:31Yeah? Yeah, yeah. Well, we've made an appointment.
04:35Oh, sorry. Is that you guys?
04:37Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we've been everywhere else. We've been buzzing.
04:4011.9.15. Come on.
04:42Oh, 9.15.
04:43Yes, 9.
04:44As opposed to?
04:46Er... 3.15.
04:47Yeah.
04:48Can we just get in there, please? Can you buzz us in? He's got a bad back.
04:51All right.
04:51Come on.
04:52Oh, my God.
04:54What? Is your buzzer broken?
04:56No.
04:57Have you worked here long?
05:00Er...
05:00I wouldn't say long.
05:03Yeah.
05:04There's two really nice stools you can sit on.
05:08So...
05:09Poppy, can I just ask, these are the engineer's logbooks, right?
05:12Yeah, I think they go back, like, 10 years.
05:15So, how much do you read?
05:18Erm, and we've got enough to be getting home with.
05:20All right.
05:20Well, we'll give you a shout if we need you.
05:22Is that all right?
05:23Good.
05:24Great.
05:24Do you want me to go?
05:27Stormtown fall.
05:28Yeah.
05:29Storms on go and flow.
05:30They've had to triple reset.
05:32It's an only dump.
05:33You've got nothing there, right?
05:35What, on the status report?
05:35Yeah.
05:36But on these status reports, it's 12 as well.
05:38That's 12, right?
05:38Mr Paul.
05:39David Marwood, Southern Water.
05:41Oh, good to meet you.
05:42Nice to meet you.
05:42Alex.
05:43Nice to meet you, Dave.
05:43I am going to have to ask you to hand back these logbooks, please.
05:47Erm, they are proprietary material.
05:50Sorry, I don't, I...
05:51These books, they are the property of Southern Water.
05:54The engineer logbooks, yeah.
05:55You have gained access to them unlawfully.
05:57Er, no.
05:58I'm asking you to hand them back.
06:00Unlawfully?
06:00These are the property of Southern Water.
06:03You gaining access to them is illegal.
06:05If you just hand it over...
06:06We are...
06:06I'm sorry.
06:07Look, sorry.
06:08What was your name again?
06:08Do you not want to see anything, sir?
06:10Mr Marwood, we are conducting an investigation under section 108 of the Environmental Life.
06:15We are well within all rights.
06:16Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
06:19Bobby, put those down. We haven't finished with them, Mr Marwood.
06:21You are obstructing our investigation under section 108 of the Environmental Act.
06:25That's what, John.
06:27What you're doing is unlawful. Please leave.
06:30Let's just go. Let's just go.
06:34We'll be back, Mr Marwood.
06:38Sandwiches.
06:43Criminal offence.
06:46You know, it took us seven years.
06:49Seven years.
06:52We need some in the end.
06:54Southern Water has been sentenced to pay a record £90 million fine after pleading guilty...
07:00They pled guilty to 6,971 crimes, come posited into 51 counts. First day.
07:07Each dump is punishable by five years in prison, but instead the judge just fined them.
07:1390 million.
07:14Cost of doing business.
07:16They dumped 7,400 Olympic swimming pools of raw shite with the knowledge of the board.
07:22They were making so much money, these fines weren't touching the sides.
07:26But this time they were committed to a culture change, which is why Toby Willison came in.
07:31Who's Toby Willison?
07:34Oh, you don't know about Toby Willison?
07:38So, Toby was number two in the Environment Agency under Sir James.
07:42But then Southern poached him a year before they were sentenced.
07:46They told the judge that he was going to run a clean-up operation within the company.
07:50He saw that as a mitigating factor.
07:53Reducing the fine from £120 million to £90 million.
07:57Sorry, you hire the second most senior person at the regulator, who is actually prosecuting you.
08:05And you get a £30 million discount on your fine.
08:09But that isn't...
08:11I mean, that's corruption, isn't it?
08:13Well, we can see how it might have the appearance of corruption, but it wasn't.
08:19You see, there's a revolving door.
08:21People leave the agency and go and work for the companies they're regulating all the time.
08:25It's just the way the industry works.
08:28When the agency brought the case against Southern, was this Toby Willison in charge?
08:33Well, we know he was acting chief exec at some point.
08:36Was he deciding who you guys were going to prosecute?
08:42We didn't prosecute any water company execs.
08:45We never have.
08:48You and I can probably remember as kids swimming in the sea
08:53and being surrounded by floating faecal material.
08:59I've certainly experienced that now, not as kids.
09:01You look at the quality of our bathing waters now,
09:05and it is unrecognisable from 20, 25 years ago.
09:09That is a direct result of the massive amount of investment
09:14the water companies have put into the networks.
09:18Remarkable.
09:19Well, I don't believe any of that.
09:20Well, James Murray joins us now.
09:21You're not going to believe this one.
09:24Toby Willison.
09:25Yeah, what about him?
09:26You know the lobby group funded by the water companies?
09:29Yeah.
09:30Willison has been on their board since 2019.
09:33You mean after he went to Southern Water?
09:35No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
09:36He's been on the board of British Water while he was working for the agency.
09:40That means that the number two at the Environment Agency
09:43is at a side hustle working for the water companies.
09:49Well, water quality is now better than that any time since the Industrial Revolution,
09:54thanks to tougher regulations by the Environment Agency.
09:57So this is Toby Willison's boss, is it?
09:59Yeah, he's at the very, very top.
10:02Liz Truss was the Environment Minister and she made him head of the Environment Agency.
10:07I don't know why she chose him.
10:09She seems to think the Environment Agency is part of the deep state.
10:13That's because the Environment Agency will not...
10:15What?
10:15...hesitate to go after water companies who cause serious pollution.
10:18But he's at the very top, isn't it?
10:20He's the one we need to get to.
10:22He's our man.
10:32The agency said that she could have contracted E. coli from dog poo.
10:37The little girl who died?
10:38Mm.
10:39I've been looking for another case where, like, dog faeces has triggered an E. coli.
10:44And you can't find one?
10:46Out right now.
10:47No, out there.
10:48But there aren't any.
10:52Hi, is that Julie?
10:54Hi, this is Chris Hines.
10:57Yes, I work for an organisation called Surfers Against Sewage.
11:01Listen, Julie, I'm down at the beach at Dawlish Warren.
11:05I think we really need to speak.
11:08No, I've always been a surfer.
11:10I moved to Cornwall when I was 19, lived in a caravan, just so I could surf every day.
11:16But everyone was getting sick all the time.
11:18There was this one day when I came up under this huge wave.
11:21I found a sanitary towel stuck to the back of my head and a turd lodged between my chest and
11:27the board.
11:28I thought, this has got to stop.
11:30So we founded Surfers Against Sewage in my caravan.
11:33And it was not long after that that we all went to Parliament in our wetsuits.
11:38We were trying to get the message out about clean water and we didn't do a good enough job.
11:42I picked Dawlish because it had a blue flag.
11:47Of course you did, because the blue flag is the gold standard for water quality.
11:51It's meant to mean that the water's clean.
11:53The council, they've set up an investigation team.
11:57If it finds that sewage killed Heather, it's going to be a calamity for business here.
12:02My guess is, they're going to be looking for any explanation so long as it's not sewage.
12:08Thanks all for being here at this startup meeting for the outbreak investigation team.
12:13Sorry, I wonder if we should be calling it an outbreak.
12:18Feels like the kind of term that could alarm people.
12:20I think cluster might be better messaging.
12:23Of course the quality of the bathing water at Dawlish is consistently high.
12:27That's a really good point. I mean, that will be reflected in the report.
12:30We know there have been some complaints about sewage on the beaches.
12:34Er, thanks Sarah, that's right.
12:36We were contacted by members of the public about this and we did send inspectors out.
12:41In the event, there had been just a single spill on July 24th.
12:45A full four days before the Preenes visited the beach.
12:48So it's very unlikely that the spill could have had an impact.
12:51And we know that although the Preenes went to the beach on several occasions, Heather never swam in the water.
12:57So with sewage looking unlikely as a culprit, we're focusing on fast food and dog faeces.
13:05Mr and Mrs Preen?
13:07We were so sorry to hear about Heather.
13:11Yeah, it must be such a difficult time.
13:14But we just need to ask you a few questions.
13:17Could I ask you about the fast food your family's been eating since you got to Dawlish?
13:22So you want to know what we had to eat?
13:24Any takeaways? Burgers?
13:26No, we ate in the shadow.
13:27Chicken chops, chippies, any fast food at all?
13:30No, we didn't have any burgers, we didn't have any fast food, to be honest.
13:34We were on a bit of a budget, so...
13:36When you went to the beach, how much dog poo did you see?
13:39No, we didn't see any dog droppings, we saw human sewage.
13:43So why do you want to know about dog poo?
13:45Because if Heather had stepped in something, she'd have told us.
13:48We have to look into every possible source.
13:53So, if you don't know what caused the infection, then you need to shut down the beach, don't you?
13:59Because the children could get this, and my daughter's dead, so you need to shut it down.
14:05That's not going to happen.
14:07After the investigation, there's going to be an inquest.
14:11I can get you a lawyer.
14:15There was an unplanned negligible spill on the 24th, four days before the preens visited the beach.
14:22The Dawlish Coast is a high dispersal area. The winds and currents are sufficiently strong
14:27that any sewage would have been dispersed long before the preens visited the beach.
14:31E. coli 0157 is not routinely found in sewage, and it's rare in water.
14:37The sea breaks down the bacteria, so there's no record of an E. coli 0157 infection from sea bathing in
14:45the UK.
14:45What kind of health risk would sewage on a footpath present?
14:50It's not for the Environment Agency to comment on a health risk.
14:56You don't have a view about whether sewage is a health risk?
15:00It's not within the remit or the expertise of the Environment Agency to comment on a public health risk.
15:11We walked along the coastal path every day.
15:16There was a discharge coming out from the pipe, and it made a puddle, you see.
15:24How big was the puddle?
15:27I don't know, three feet, maybe.
15:30And it was spilling out onto the beach.
15:35It smelt like feces.
15:39And I could see there was little bits of pink toilet paper in it.
15:46So you walked around it?
15:48No, we jumped over it.
15:52Except, um, Heather did, didn't manage to clear it, and, um...
16:02She landed in, in the puddle that was coming from the pipe?
16:05Yeah.
16:06You couldn't stop her?
16:10What the...
16:11What didn't stop her?
16:16Well, you didn't know.
16:19You say you saw the... the puddle every day?
16:24Yeah.
16:25You're aware that the Environment Agency has been unable to confirm any subsequent spills?
16:30That there was only one confirmed report of a spill during your holiday?
16:35Why do you think you were the only one who saw the puddle?
16:38I don't know.
16:42But I saw it.
16:43Is it possible that you've confused things in your memory?
16:45No, I saw it.
16:47We all saw it, didn't we?
16:52It was a puddle and a little stream of poo.
16:59In the days running up to the Preen's visit, the Environment Agency received
17:04at least 14 complaints about sewage on the beach.
17:08In the week before Heather Preen fell ill, I treated two children with febrile gastroenteritis.
17:16The children had been swimming at the town beach and then found themselves immersed in raw sewage.
17:23I reported it but heard nothing more.
17:27In the days after the Preen's visit, Dorlish was inundated with feces.
17:33Big influxes of sewage debris were turning up on the beach.
17:37Our cleaners log the number of sanitary towels.
17:41Southwest Water pays contractors to clean up the sewage by hand.
17:44Resort staff were cleaning away sewage as a matter of urgency.
17:52At least six other children were infected with the E. coli virus after being at the beach that day.
18:01Sophie Smith was seven months old.
18:05Back home in Walsall, she was diagnosed with an E. coli 0157 infection.
18:1111-year-old Jane Duncan was hospitalized with an E. coli 0157 infection.
18:20She bled through her anus 50 times in the first few days and asked her parents if she was going
18:26to die.
18:29Ashley, Ruby and Dylan Hamlin, along with their mum Claire, were all infected.
18:36Claire drove her son Dylan to hospital after they both began bleeding from their backsides.
18:44Doctors wouldn't admit Claire at first, so she cleared up her own blood and vomit from the toilets.
18:52Later, Dylan's sisters Ashley and Ruby were also admitted.
19:06There's no cure for E. coli.
19:09They keep you on a drip and hope for the best.
19:15Dylan's screaming was so frightening his dad thought everyone was going to die.
19:21E. coli 0157 is a pathogen that thrives in sewage.
19:26It can survive in water for up to 91 days.
19:30Swimming in water infected with E. coli has been identified as the cause of multiple outbreaks.
19:39We tested the waters around Dawlish.
19:41Of the 45 samples taken, only two came back positive for E. coli 0157.
19:47The infected families were all on a part of the beach where dogs were allowed.
19:51They could all have crisscrossed the site of an infected dog faeces.
19:57None of us were on the same part of the beach.
20:00We never saw any dog poo.
20:03This map doesn't make any sense.
20:06Families went on the same part of the beach.
20:08No one saw any dog faeces.
20:10And there's no good evidence of transmission from dogs anywhere.
20:15Southwest Water and the Environment Agency present this improbable theory,
20:21whilst choosing to ignore repeated, substantial sewage pollution.
20:26The Agency did carry out tests on the seawater.
20:30But the testing took place on the 27th of August.
20:35A full month after the infected families had visited the beach.
20:47Cunts.
20:50Fucking cunts, John.
20:50My mum.
20:54You've twisted everything.
20:55I know, did you?
21:00I've been out of the down, haven't I?
21:01You've not been out of the down.
21:03You think I can ask Henry if I can do it again?
21:05No. No.
21:06What are you all about?
21:07You've done it.
21:08You've stuck up for her.
21:12You've stuck up for this family.
21:20We saw them sanitary towels, Jill.
21:24We saw the toilet roll.
21:26We...
21:28Didn't we?
21:32And we let our Barbies come back out.
21:37Not here.
21:38Not here.
21:39Not here.
21:40Not here.
21:40Not here.
21:42No.
21:54At first they said it was something we had to eat, but it wasn't, so...
21:59Then they came up with dog poo.
22:03But how could all of our kids walk through the same bit of poo without remembering?
22:10I would know if my child had touched poo.
22:17The one thing all our kids did do was go into the water.
22:22We saw the toilet roll.
22:25We saw the sanitary towels.
22:28You can't tell us we didn't see it, cos we did, we saw it.
22:37I know now we should have turned away from that beach.
22:42I know that.
22:46Heather's dad knows that.
22:51We will live with that.
22:53We chose Dawlish because of the blue flag and we trusted it.
22:59The gold standard of water quality.
23:04We didn't know it was a lie.
23:12No one should have died the way my Heather died.
23:19She was poisoned, and the anti-sickness tablets they gave her
23:25meant her little body couldn't get rid of it.
23:29She was liquidised from the inside.
23:38We went on holiday, a family of four.
23:41And we've come back a family of three.
23:54And we don't want any money, don't worry.
23:58We don't want your money, so...
24:01We just...
24:02We want something to change.
24:07We don't want another family to go to the beach
24:09and come back with one less child.
24:15And you're still dumping sewage.
24:19And you...
24:22You're the environment agency.
24:25You're supposed to look after us,
24:26and you are sat here in this court
24:29and you're swapping notes with Southwest Water.
24:31Why?
24:33And it took you...
24:35It took him one month
24:36to go looking for the E. coli that killed my daughter?
24:41Why would you do that?
24:45What is this?
24:50I...
24:51I would not wish...
24:53what has happened to us on my worst enemy.
24:58I wouldn't wish it on your kids.
25:04So, please...
25:07close the beach, please.
25:12Before this happens to somebody else, please.
25:24I'm sorry.
25:28Following an inquisition taken for our Sovereign Lady the Queen,
25:34touching on the death of Heather Amy Preen.
25:40The cause of death was E. coli poisoning.
25:46The deceased probably contracted E. coli
25:49whilst visiting the beach at Dawlish Warren on the 24th of July,
25:55along with other children who survived.
26:02I recommend that consideration be given to a notice
26:07warning the public of sewage discharges,
26:11and that an ultraviolet treatment should be added to the sewage works at Dawlish.
26:16Consideration should be given to greater enforcement of the dogs on the beach ban.
26:41June 2019, Sir James Bevan Environment Agency.
26:45Dear Sir James, I wrote to you to raise concerns about a serious integrity issue involving the agency.
26:52I did not receive any acknowledgement.
26:55Yes, Sir James Bevan.
26:57This is Ash Smith. Wind rush against sewage pollution.
27:01We sent an email. We sent a lot of emails.
27:03Ash.
27:04What?
27:05Ash.
27:06Yes, I'll hold.
27:07I'm on a bloody phone.
27:08They want us to come in.
27:09Who?
27:09They want us to come in.
27:14Oh, fucking hell.
27:17I'll leave the bastion.
27:25Very nice to meet you. Hello, then.
27:27What's the matter, please, do sit down.
27:28Sir James is on the premises.
27:31I...
27:31I think he's at a meeting.
27:34He's been called out to an instant.
27:35I was hoping he might be even present in the meeting.
27:39Not this kind of meeting, though.
27:40I just wanted to start with a few questions about integrity.
27:45Because I see that the agency's former director of operations
27:49joined the board of British water while he was working for the agency,
27:53which means that your COO was moonlighting for the water companies
27:59while he was regulating them.
28:01So what do we call that?
28:03Well, I think moonlighting's a pretty strong word.
28:07Definition.
28:07What I would say is that Toby Willison no longer works for the agency.
28:11That's the first point.
28:12And when he decided...
28:14But how does that affect when he was here, though?
28:17The fact that he's not here, doesn't it?
28:19I'm coming on to that.
28:20His declarations, with all due respect,
28:23his declarations of interest were noted at the time.
28:25And any risks at all, and we do take these things very seriously,
28:28were appropriately managed.
28:29Yes, but then Mr Willison was hired by a water company
28:32as it stood trial on 51 counts of sewage dumping.
28:37How is that not a case of conflict of interest?
28:40Ah, well, very clear rules, which was what I was going to say.
28:44Very clear, clear rules around conflict of interest
28:47were put in place as soon as Mr Willison decided to take up his new job.
28:51So he stepped out of any relevant discussions.
28:56We did everything we could to make that.
28:58Well, the judge ruled that all criminal activity in that case
29:01was masterminded from the top of the company.
29:03So was Mr Willison involved in the decision
29:05not to prosecute Southern executives?
29:07Was it?
29:08We can't comment on that.
29:10No.
29:11We can't comment.
29:11Yeah, we don't talk about internal meetings.
29:16Well, how many water company executives has the agency prosecuted?
29:21Well, criminal prosecution is quite a high bar.
29:25That's it.
29:26If we had evidence that the offence was serious enough,
29:30we wouldn't hesitate to prosecute it.
29:31But there is no substantiated evidence.
29:33We've just given you evidence.
29:35But it's not substantiated.
29:36A board-sanctioned plan for seven years
29:40of continuous dumping was not enough evidence.
29:46Thanks so much.
29:47I've got to touch.
29:49Thank you so much.
29:51Thanks so much.
29:52Yeah, I hope that goes well.
30:06I'm going to get another one.
30:10You're going to have another Flake 99?
30:13Eileen thinks I've got an obsessive streak.
30:16Well, she's not wrong, is she?
30:24What the hell was that?
30:26Well, did you think they'd be more grateful
30:29for our disclosures about revolving doors?
30:31Did they really think that that was all right,
30:33working for both of them at the same time?
30:35And I think you're taking it personally.
30:37I am.
30:37You know, I mean, for me, it's an occupational hazard.
30:39I feel like I've been beaten up.
30:42That's how I feel.
30:43And I've never been beaten up.
30:44We're getting somewhere.
30:45We're making a difference.
30:47We're clearly up against something bigger.
31:23We're making a difference.
31:24We're making a difference.
32:13Right, so you know, she's not going to be back from football till about seven, so just tell her to
32:20put that in the micro.
32:24You look nice.
32:27What is it?
32:32Erm...
32:34You know, erm...
32:37Tony's got that flat down the Arranda Road.
32:40He's not using.
32:42Well, erm, he said that I can stop there for a bit if I want, you know, just...
32:49Just while I do the Tesco job like.
32:53Yeah.
32:55Erm...
32:56Good idea.
32:58Might be a bit of mine, innit?
33:00Yeah.
33:01Yeah.
33:05I'm going to be late, so...
33:11Yeah.
33:13All right.
33:20All right.
33:20Yeah.
33:29See ya.
33:29See ya.
33:47All right, babe?
33:47You all right, Dad?
33:50I've got your pizza in here if you want it.
33:51I'm not hungry.
33:54I've got a project, so I might just...
33:58All right, yeah.
33:59We'll have it later, shall we?
34:00Yeah.
34:01If we get hungry.
34:02All right.
34:15Do you want anything, babe?
34:28You all right, Val?
34:30Mm-hmm.
34:30God, look at you.
34:33What's going on, Mum?
34:46Yeah.
34:50Yeah.
35:00Yeah.
35:01If you watch the video, it's really not as bad as you think it is.
35:05Yeah, it's not.
35:07There it is.
35:08Is there sound on there?
35:09I don't know.
35:11So there it is as we can see.
35:13Oh, no.
35:14Yeah, let's click for it.
35:17Yeah.
35:18Yeah.
35:20We actually think it's, um, agricultural runoff.
35:24Yeah.
35:24Yeah.
35:24Actually.
35:25But from farms?
35:26Mm-hmm.
35:27It's almost certainly farm runoff.
35:29Mm-hmm.
35:29Almost certainly.
35:30Yeah.
35:31We believe, yeah.
35:32And we do have a responsibility to report that to the environment.
35:36Pollutionary agents.
35:38So we'd say...
35:39Blimey.
35:40Um, this is due to the farm.
35:42The farms.
35:43Um, and that is what has led to this, um, overspill.
35:48Mm-hmm.
35:48That's really nice.
35:49I love that as well.
35:50That was very good.
35:50So though there have been storm-activated overspill...
35:56It's possible.
35:56..the discolouration of the water...
35:58Yeah.
35:58..is because of agricultural runoff.
36:01Exactly, yeah.
36:01We are sorry about this.
36:05And we will do everything in our power...
36:07..to improve the situation.
36:09Mm-hmm.
36:10But some of it is not our fault.
36:12Well, I think if we can just own it.
36:12It is not our fault.
36:14Yeah, exactly.
36:14I think we just...we just own it.
36:16It's the farmer's fault.
36:17I can use the hands and I think that helps the audience...
36:21Just amazing.
36:21..to feel like I'm one of them.
36:23Yeah.
36:23You very much do fit in as well with one of the...
36:25Mm-hmm.
36:26You know that you're...you're almost one of them in many ways.
36:29Yes.
36:30Yes.
36:30I thought, hi-vis, a pair of those wrap-around goggles...
36:34..that kind of ski as well.
36:35Yeah.
36:35...and a hard hat.
36:37I hear your frustration.
36:39I really do.
36:40Smashed it.
36:41I thought it was amazing.
36:42So, you know, we've been getting a lot of these, um, sickness reports...
36:45..coming in from the south-west.
36:47Well, they've asked us if we wanted to go to a meeting down there.
36:50It's kind of a national thing.
36:51There's gonna be water company bosses there.
36:54Yes.
36:54And I think...I mean, I think we should go, shouldn't we?
36:57We've done a huge amount of research at the UK Council of Water...
37:00..on levels of public trust in...in the water industry.
37:03..and what we've found, generally, is that levels of public trust...
37:07..are actually...actually pretty high.
37:09Uh, no, no, if, uh, well, you...you might laugh, but, but...
37:12Guy, I...I actually, I do get it.
37:14There's been a lot of pain, there's been a lot of frustration.
37:17Yeah.
37:17We have the only bathing status river in this country.
37:20And we have 2,000 people there in the summer...
37:23..with their kids, with fishing nets, sitting amongst turds.
37:27We're all passionate about the environment.
37:30We're passionate about water quality.
37:31It's the driving force behind what we do.
37:34No.
37:34Can you answer why, then?
37:35My son's been so ill from 2022 after a day on the beach...
37:41..and then contracted hepatitis A?
37:44That is the week before we went on our holiday.
37:48That's the week after in hospital.
37:51That's the week later when he's starting to get jaundice...
37:55..and he's starting to get bilirubin.
37:57And that, that's from something called cholestasis...
38:01..which affects your gallbladder.
38:02He itched like crazy.
38:05These scars are still around.
38:07He can't stand without them hurting.
38:09Through school, I missed about properly three, four months.
38:13And even when I was at school, I was, like, tired.
38:17I was dropping to sleep.
38:18I couldn't remember half the stuff I'd learned.
38:21And it took a lot, a long time to sort of build back up,
38:24a sort of friendship group.
38:28And it also led to, like, a lot of bullying.
38:31People saying, oh, you went in the water, all this dirty water,
38:35a human poo in it and stuff like that.
38:37I used to do a lot of farming, helping my dad.
38:40It just wipes you out.
38:41You've got no energy, you can't do anything.
38:43You just, you just had to stop.
38:46Every feedback that you give us is, you know,
38:49really, really important to us.
38:50I didn't know at the time, but Surfers Against Sewage
38:53explained that there was 342 hours of raw sewage
38:57that was released into the beach that I was swimming on.
39:00This particular strep bacteria entered my bloodstream
39:03and started growing on my heart valve,
39:05so I had to have a heart replacement.
39:07I was in hospital for six weeks.
39:09I ended up having open-heart surgery.
39:12The health and wellbeing of our customers
39:14is at the forefront of what we do,
39:16and hearing stories like this is incredibly important to us.
39:19But don't play your virus even off.
39:20We can reflect on them. Lessons will be learned going forwards.
39:23We can reflect on them going forwards.
39:24You've had to say, now listen to someone
39:26who's worked in the water industry for 40 years of his life.
39:30Prior to privatisation, if the infrastructure needed upgrading,
39:34it got it.
39:34If it needed bits of plant to be replaced, it got it.
39:37It was run like a military operation.
39:40Macquarie's come along.
39:42God help us.
39:44Asset stripped it.
39:45Sold land.
39:46Sold pumping stations.
39:48Built blocks of flats onto it.
39:50And decimated our infrastructure.
39:52This falls back to the government
39:53to renationalise this industry.
39:56ASAP.
40:01Get rid of the people
40:03who have asset stripped it.
40:05Stripped it of millions of pounds.
40:07All your profits.
40:08All your bonuses.
40:09Keir Starmer.
40:10Steve Reid.
40:11The Invisible Man.
40:12Do your job
40:13and renationalise the water industry.
40:16Well...
40:24Mistakes are made.
40:26But I would say this, and I'd happily go on the record,
40:29I would drink water out of any tap in the United Kingdom.
40:33Sorry.
40:34Would you come to Brixham and have a glass of our water?
40:37Um...
40:38Last...
40:38Last year in May, we had an outbreak of cryptosporidium,
40:42as Susan Davies knows.
40:43It's obviously a privilege and a huge responsibility to run a water company.
40:51And it's one that I take very, very seriously.
40:53I was poisoned by cryptosporidium in the water.
40:56I was ill for such a very long time.
40:59Six months or more.
41:00My body was attacking itself.
41:01My immune system was attacking itself.
41:03My injuries are life changing.
41:05What we are committed to is improving step by step.
41:08And things do go wrong.
41:10Things go wrong.
41:10I put my hands up.
41:12Can you please explain to us why you got a 58% pay rise?
41:17I don't actually set my pay.
41:21I don't actually.
41:22It's not down to me how much I'm paid.
41:25The amount you're talking about will actually be a cost of living increase.
41:29Yeah, yeah.
41:31You earn 860 grand a year?
41:33We don't have a choice in our water provider.
41:36I come from Henley.
41:38We're in the Thames region.
41:39I know Ash and Peter well.
41:41How have we arrived in a situation where a privatised water industry is scamming the public,
41:48is taking off enormous profits and dividends for shareholders,
41:51paying huge bonuses to executives,
41:53and our children are getting vomiting and diarrhoea from doing what should come naturally.
41:58We do not trust you.
41:59Not one water company executive has ever been prosecuted
42:04and has served prison time, quite honestly, which they should.
42:14There you go.
42:15I don't want to see them.
42:16Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
42:21Yeah, hello.
42:22Pete, Pete, listen to me.
42:22Mickey, yeah?
42:24I haven't got much time, alright?
42:25River Ray outside Swindon.
42:27A sewage maze exploded.
42:30It's a crime scene, man.
42:31You've got to get down there right now before they clear it up.
42:33And Pete, listen.
42:36We're a 21-karat key, sir.
42:37Yeah, so are you, Mickey.
43:05The river's gone, Nash.
43:07I mean...
43:08The river's gone, Nash.
43:10That's...
43:10And it's not coming back.
43:22How many do you reckon?
43:25Well, killed.
43:26Mm.
43:28Hundreds.
43:29Thousands.
43:30Thousands of babies, definitely.
43:37What?
43:38Ash, I'm scared that we're running out of time.
43:44What do you mean by that?
43:45That we're running out of time to make a difference.
43:50What are you talking about?
43:51Look at this.
43:51Look at this we've got.
43:52This is...
43:53It's the best stuff.
43:54But nothing's going to happen, is it, Ash?
43:57What do you mean?
43:58Thames Water, they're going to make a statement saying that, you know,
44:02the environment is their number one priority,
44:05and the agency, they're just going to launch an investigation
44:10that we'll never hear about again.
44:13Yeah.
44:13And they're...
44:14Well, they're acting as though we don't exist.
44:17So what are you saying?
44:20I...
44:20I don't know how long we've got.
44:26We're not going to make a difference.
44:27There's no time left to make a difference.
44:30What are you talking about?
44:31Look at...
44:32Look at this we just shot.
44:35But it doesn't matter...
44:35This is...
44:36This is not the time to pack it in.
44:38But it doesn't matter what we show them.
44:40It doesn't matter...
44:41I mean, we could show them dead bodies floating down the river.
44:43They still wouldn't do anything about it, would they?
44:46Right.
44:47We just go back, you go and watch some bloody jazz.
44:51When you think you're...
44:52When you think you're beaten, you don't give in.
44:54We're going to the right channels.
44:55We're doing the right thing.
44:56And nothing's coming back.
44:58And nothing's come back for years.
45:01What do you want to do?
45:02It...
45:03It's exhausting.
45:05We get nothing back.
45:07I'm not stopping.
45:09I can't.
45:14I can't.
45:21I can't.
45:22Yeah, no.
45:23I'm...
45:24Yeah, we're on a vapor.
45:42May 2020, subject, Environment Agency, complicit in law-breaking.
45:47Dear Sir James, over the past two years,
45:49Professor Peter Hammond and I have been documenting
45:51chronic offending by Thames water.
45:55Thames have been using our river as a cheap way to carry raw sewage out to sea
45:59and making vast profits doing so.
46:02The Environment Agency has been turning a blind eye
46:05and misrepresenting facts to the public.
46:24Peter?
46:28Peter?
46:30It's the middle of the night.
46:32What are you doing?
46:36I was worried. I couldn't sleep.
46:40Worried about what?
46:45About all the things that live in the river.
46:53You didn't put your hands in it, did you?
46:57No.
46:59OK.
47:02There's nothing you can do now.
47:04I-I-I know.
47:07I know.
47:09I know.
47:10OK.
47:12So, shall we go back to bed?
47:16Yeah.
47:16Yeah.
47:17Yeah.
47:53I don't know.
48:30We have the best quality water since the Industrial Revolution.
48:34The water's turned brown.
48:35From today, we are ending on-site inspections for Cats 3 and 4.
48:40What exactly do you want us to do?
48:43Reuben! Reuben!
48:47We need another whistleblower.
48:49The regulation isn't real.
48:50The government wants us to look like a regulator, but they won't let us do our job.
48:54You have a duty not to disclose confidential information to anyone not authorised to receive it!
49:18On What just do you want it to do?
49:20...
49:35...
49:36...
50:36See that next episode tomorrow at nine, or right now if you'd prefer.
50:40All episodes of Dirty Business are ready and waiting on Channel 4 streaming.
50:45Gogglebox is here next.
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