UK water company fined £0.5m for pollution offences

A UK water company has been fined half a million pounds for sewage pumping failures that killed more than 2,000 fish.

Wessex Water has been found to be negligent after sewage leaks killed the fish and the company failed to report incidents to the Environment Agency as early as it should have. At Swindon Magistrates Court the company was fined £500,000 after it had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges relating to the Bowerhill Lodge pumping station at Melksham, Wiltshire, and one relating to a burst sewer main at a sewage treatment works at Wick St Lawrence, near Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset.

The company was also ordered to pay costs of £60,000, plus applicable VAT, and a victim surcharge of £170.

District Judge Joanna Dickens said that the company’s failure to report discharges at Bowerhill Lodge ‘undermines the regulatory regime’ though Wessex Water had since taken ]considerable and expensive steps’ to remedy the situation.

She noted that at Wick St Lawrence flow pressure monitoring equipment had been installed since the incident and there had been no repetition of any similar incidents. The Judge said that while there was no long-lasting impact to the environment in this case ‘it was negligent because of the failures at this specific location and the failure to install monitoring equipment at an earlier time.’

Janine Maclean, Environment Agency Senior Environment Officer, said: “These cases are further examples of a water company breaking the law and causing serious pollution. It was very sad that pollutions had such serious impacts – killing fish and aquatic life.

“Wessex Water’s rising mains are ageing and becoming vulnerable to bursting and an area of increasing concern to the Environment Agency, presenting a risk to people and the environment. We recognise that it is increasing its monitoring of rising mains, which is a positive step forward, but monitoring is still reliant on failure and we would like to see the company significantly increase the level of investment it makes to proactively replacing rising mains before they fail.

“We expect all water companies to manage and maintain their sewage pumping stations and rising mains in a responsible and sustainable manner to ensure they do not cause pollution. We hope these cases send a clear signal to shareholders and water company boardrooms up and down the country that investing in resilient sewage systems to prevent pollution and ensure compliance must be an essential way of doing business.

“Our regulatory officers are increasing the regulatory inspections of Wessex Water’s pumping stations and we will also be attending more incidents, including those arising from rising mains, with new resources we are gaining to transform the way we regulate the water industry.”