Intensive cattle farms face a crackdown on the pollution they spill into rivers under sweeping water reforms.

Government plans mean that beef and dairy farmers may have to apply for environmental permits usually reserved for polluting industrial facilities, such as incinerators and chemical plants.

Campaigners have been warning that waterways are at risk from a growing number of American-style “mega-farms”.

The majority of farms do not at present require environmental permits, which are used to regulate the management of waste. Only the biggest poultry and pork producers — those with more than 40,000 chickens or more than 2,000 pigs raised for meat — need to apply for them.

However, a water white paper published on Tuesday said it was not only water companies that needed to clean up their act. “We need to ensure farmers continue to play their part in tackling water pollution,” officials said. They confirmed that the government was “considering extending environmental permitting to cattle farming”.

The number of cattle in the UK has fallen in recent years, to just below 9.2 million. There has been considerable consolidation in the sector, creating fewer and bigger farms and more cattle per farm. Farming is the number one cause of water pollution, just ahead of the water companies.

Officials also said they would consult on how “sewage sludge” was used in agriculture. More than 100,000 truckloads of sludge, a by-product from sewage treatment works that is used as an organic fertiliser, are spread on farmers’ fields every autumn.

Environmentalists have raised concerns about contamination by pollutants including “forever chemicals”, which are linked to human health problems.

The reforms also focus on avoiding more situations like that at Thames Water, which is still in months-long talks with creditors to stave off collapse as it services about £19 billion in debt.

A new water regulator will be created from four existing ones and tasked with stopping water companies accumulating “unmanageable levels of debt”,” the white paper said. The regulator will also be more broadly required to make the industry more creditworthy.

Thames is not the only water company struggling with debt. South East Water, which announced on Monday that it had finally restored supply to thousands of properties in Kent after weeks of interruptions, is servicing £1.4 billion in debt. Southern Water, its western neighbour, reported debts of £6.2 billion at the end of the last financial year.

The white paper said: “While debt is often the most efficient way to finance long-lived infrastructure, over-reliance on debt and insufficient buffers has, in some instances, left companies exposed to financial shocks.”

Ministers have rejected the idea of creating nine new regional water authorities — eight in England and one in Wales — to fill a “missing middle” between national plans and local action to tackle water pollution.

The bodies were a recommendation of Sir Jon Cunliffe’s independent water commission last year. He said the authorities were needed to make sure action on the main polluters — water firms, farmers and roads — was more united at a local level.

• Surprise inspections to stop water companies covering up errors

The government said its regulatory changes, which it hopes to bring about via a bill, should also end the “huge price hikes” that households started feeling last year. The reforms should create “stronger protections” to ensure that “a customer’s monthly water bill is a predictable cost that rises smoothly”, the white paper said.

However, the reforms refer only to regional plans and campaigners warned that the white paper risked falling short of the transformational “once-in-a-generation” change promised by Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary.

Mark Lloyd, chief executive of the Rivers Trust charity, said: “The government seems to be shying away from implementing properly funded, independent regional planning bodies, linked to well-funded local delivery, which we believe are essential to transform the resilience of our landscapes.”

Rachel Hallos, vice-president of the National Farmers Union, said: “We welcome the commitment to streamline regulation. However, we are concerned about any expansion of permitting to include cattle. Such a change could have a direct impact on farm business growth at a time when increasing growth is a core mission of this government.”