来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2021年7月13日
What’s remarkable is not that a water company knowingly and deliberately poured billions of litres of raw sewage into the sea to cut its costs. What’s remarkable is that the Environment Agency investigated and prosecuted it. Every day, water companies pour tonnes of unprocessed filth into England’s rivers and seas, and the government does nothing.
值得注意的并不是一家水务公司为了削减成本而故意地将数十亿升未经处理的污水排入大海。值得注意的是环境署调查并起诉了它。每天，水务公司将数吨未经处理的垃圾排入英格兰的河流和海洋，而政府却无动于衷。
Even in the wake of the sentence last week, under which Southern Water was fined £90m, the company’s own maps show a continued flow of raw filth into coastal waters. Same shit, different day. The only occasions on which water companies are allowed by law to release raw sewage are when “exceptional rainfall” overwhelms their treatment works. But the crap keeps coming, rain or no rain.
即使是在上周判决之后，南水公司自己的地图显示，未经处理的污物仍在继续流入沿海水域。根据判决，南水公司被罚款9000万英镑。罚款并没有让情况有所改善。水务公司被法律允许排放未经处理的污水的唯一情况是“异常降雨”淹没了其污水处理厂。但不管下雨还是不下雨，污水照排不误。
The prosecution was driven above all by one official at the Environment Agency, Stephen Bailey, who managed to stick with the case, breaking through layers of water industry deception. Even so, though this was a deliberate and long-lasting crime, though “very serious widespread criminality” was established, though Southern Water obstructed the investigation, no executive is being prosecuted. The fine will be swallowed by its gigantic profits like a stone thrown into a settling tank.
这次起诉主要由环境署官员Bailey推动，他坚持调查这个案子，打破了水务产业的层层骗局。尽管如此，尽管这是一个蓄意的、长期的犯罪，尽管“非常严重的普遍犯罪”已经被证实，尽管南水公司阻碍了调查，但没有该公司的高管被起诉。罚金远不及巨额利润，就像一块扔进沉淀池的石头。
As the court documents show, the company knew it ran the risk of big fines, but calculated that they would cost less than upgrading its plants and treating the sewage. Hiding its discharges saved it more than £90m in penalties, even before the huge savings it made by failing to upgrade its infrastructure are taken into account. The £90m fine was explained as “deterrents.” But the occasional prosecution seems to be treated by water companies as a business cost.
正如法庭文件显示的那样，南水公司知道自己面临巨额罚款的风险，但估计这些费用比升级工厂和处理污水的成本要低。偷摸排放为公司节省的钱就已经超过9000多万英镑的罚款，这甚至还没算上因没有升级污水处理基础设施而节省的巨额费用。9000万英镑罚款被解释为“威慑”。但偶尔的起诉似乎被水务公司视为一种商业成本。
The truth is that the governments of all four nations have lost control of the pollution crisis, and in some cases this seems to be, like Southern Water’s releases, knowing and deliberate. Since 2010, the Westminster government has cut the Environment Agency’s grant by almost two-thirds. It knew the budget was already stretched. It knew the water companies and other polluters were already getting away with murder, but it proceeded anyway. When you look into your local river and see, instead of sparkling water and leaping fish, stools and wet wipes, sanitary towels and sewage fungus, please remember that this is what “cutting red tape” looks like.
事实是，英国四个地区的政府都失去了对污染危机的控制，在某些情况下，这似乎是有意为之的，就像南水公司的排放一样。自2010年以来，英国政府将环境署的拨款削减了近三分之二。它知道预算已经很紧张了。它知道水务公司和其他污染者已经逍遥法外，但它还是继续了下去。当你走进当地的河流，看到的不是晶莹的水和跳跃的鱼，而是粪便、湿纸巾、卫生巾和污水真菌，请记住，这就是“剪掉繁文缛节”最后的样子。
Even worse, David Cameron’s administration shifted from external regulation to relying on water companies to “self-report” pollution incidents. In other words, the government depends on these ruthless, offshored corporations to blow the whistle on themselves. The Tories claim to be “tough” and “realistic”, but their naivety in expecting companies to regulate themselves would astonish a six-year-old.
更糟糕的是，戴维•卡梅伦政府从外部监管转向依赖水务公司“自我报告”污染事件。换句话说，政府依靠这些无情的离岸公司来揭发自己。保守党宣称自己“强硬”和“现实”，但他们在期望公司自我监管方面的天真会让一个六岁的孩子感到吃惊。