This document summarizes the UKWIR Chemical Investigations Programme from 2010-2020. The £165M program examined 74 substances at 600 sewage treatment works to establish the likelihood of exceeding environmental quality standards and potential treatment options. Findings showed that most chemicals of concern come from domestic sources and some substances are ubiquitous. Catchment studies showed sewage effluent is not always the main contributor to poor river quality. Economic analyses estimated costs of £27-31BN for end-of-pipe pharmaceutical solutions and found public willingness to pay £73-168/household/year for metal and chemical pollution reductions, though valuations have remaining issues to address.

1. Chemical Investigations
Programme and economic
appraisal of policy responses
Nick Haigh
Head of Floods & Water Analysis & Evidence, Defra
OECD Workshop: Managing Contaminants of Emerging Concern
in Surface Waters
5 Feb 2018

2. Courtesy UKWIR 2
UKWIR Chemical Investigations Programme 2010-20

3. The Programme
• Examining trace chemicals in the water environment, and potential
effect on Environmental Quality Standard/PNEC compliance
• Possible because detection increasingly viable at low concentrations
• £165m programme
• Two phases: CIP1 (2010-2014); CIP2 (2015-20)
• Examining 74 substances at/around 600 STWs
• Works with relatively low dilution (more scope for problems)
• Upstream and downstream sampling
• Establish likelihood of EQS non-compliance; options for action
• Also 5 catchment-level studies
• Trials of new treatment technologies
Courtesy UKWIR 3

4. Findings to date – “emerging” chemicals
• Emerging concerns that some chemicals likely to be exceeding
Probable No-Effect Concentrations (PNECs):
Courtesy UKWIR 4

5. Findings to date – general
• Source of most chemicals of
concern domestic
• Many are ubiquitous; for a few,
waste water not main source
• “Problem chemicals, not
problem discharges”
• Catchment studies show
sewage effluent isn’t main
contributor to poor river quality
– upstream quality is often poor
• But: control measures put in
place recently seem to be
working (brominated
diphenylethers, BDEs)
Courtesy UKWIR. Picture: water-technology.net 5

6. Economic appraisal of policy responses
• Costs of actions typically are known. Benefits more
difficult to value
• Estimate of £27-31bn over 20 years to implement end-
of-pipe solutions for pharmaceuticals (Env Agency)
• Established methodology for valuing improvements in
ecological status of local water bodies (stated
preference approach – National Water Environment
Benefit Survey, NWEBS)
• But: NWEBS does not identify separate benefits of
chemical improvements
Floods & Water Analysis & Evidence 6
Picture: ecoSPHERE

7. The value of chemical improvements?
• Initial project by LSE (Atherton) for EA
• Public dialogue (in absence of firm science)
• Two days of deliberative workshops
• Stated preference survey to elicit valuations for
reductions in water pollution by metals (local,
well-understood impacts) and by flame
retardants and Far Reaching Substances
(persistent, far-reaching, less understood)
• Metals: £73-114/hh/yr for move from 90% to 95-
100% EQS compliance
• Flame retardants/FRS: £107-168/hh/yr for 30-
50% cleanup in 30-20 yrs (Baseline: no action)
Courtesy Joel Atherton – London School of Economics 7

8. Economic appraisal: remaining issues
• Scaling valuations to actual scenarios: actual improvement scenario,
population, dealing with overlaps with NWEBS
• Respondents to stated preference survey did not distinguish clearly
and consistently between different scales of improvement
• Although public dialogue a helpful approach to explore attitudes in the
absence of firm science on impacts, is stated preference really an
appropriate valuation technique in conditions of extreme uncertainty?
• If not, how do we deal with decision making under the uncertainty
surrounding CECs…?
Floods & Water Analysis & Evidence 8

9. Floods & Water Analysis & Evidence 9
Thank you
watereconomics@defra.gsi.gov.uk