The Environment Agency has published a natural capital calculator to estimate the loss to the public following a pollution incident to England's waterways.
Organisations responsible for causing the pollution have the option of using the calculator to estimate the cost of the public’s losses after a pollution incident to English waterwaysin order to make an your for an enforcement undertaking payment to the Agency.
The calculator can only be used if the pollution incident affected water.
The calculator, in the form of an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, estimates the value the public holds for improvements to rivers, lakes and other waterbodies such as reservoirs, canals.
The results, given to the nearest £1,000, based on the value of the pound in 2016, can provide a starting point to open discussion with the Environment Agency.
The calculator incorporates a range of values based on the time period the environment is of lower quality than usual as result of the pollution, including the loss felt by the general public.
The guidance which accompanies the calculator says the loss to society can be measured by the incident’s severity, scale, duration and location. The severity is judged by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) ecological status of the waterbody before and after the event.
The calculator does not include losses to businesses or organisations or enable the estimation of clean up and restoration costs.
Yesterday the Chair of the Environment Agency called for courts to make fines for water pollution incidents proportionate to the companies’ turnover, saying that the water companies are responsible for "at least one serious pollution incident every week."
Click here to access the calculator online.
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