Wessex Water fined £500,000 for failures and sewage pollution
The pollution in two locations led to thousands of fish dying
Last updated 12th Nov 2024
Wessex Water has been slammed with a half a million pound fine - after thousands of fish died in a tributary of the River Avon - when a sewage pumping station failed.
The firm's been given the sentence at Swindon Magistrates Court after earlier pleading guilty to two charged relating to sites in Melksham and Wick St Lawrence in Somerset.
The Environment Agency said an ageing network is becoming an 'increasing concern' following the incidents, in which more than 2,000 eels, lamprey and bullheads, and stickleback died - of these, at least three of the reported species to have died are threatened.
Wessex Water was earlier found to have been negligent after it then failed to report incidents to the Environment Agency as early as it should have.
Swindon Magistrates’ Court sentenced the company to a total of £500,000 after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges relating to the Bowerhill Lodge sewage pumping station at Melksham, Wiltshire, and one relating to a burst sewer main at the Wick St Lawrence sewage treatment works 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.
Both of these incidents happened back in 2018, whilst the third charge was of causing untreated sewage effluent to discharge into marsh rhynes (a type of manmade drainage channel) from a rising main leading into the Wick St Lawrence works.
Melksham
In the case brought by the Environment Agency, the court heard almost all of the fish within a 1km reach had been killed following the mechanical failure, which continued for 54.5 hours.
The investigation found that failures of the sewage pumping station’s alarm and telemetry system, and a power cable becoming entangled in pump equipment, contributed to the failures.
Further investigation found that there had been other discharges from Bowerhill Lodge Pumping Station earlier that year that Wessex Water had not reported to the Environment Agency.
Wick St Lawrence
In this part of the case, a rising main burst at a location that had already been identified by Wessex Water as a critical rising main that needed to be monitored.
However, it was discovered that the monitoring was not put in place until after the incident.
The investigation found that a September 2018 document the company submitted to Ofwat showed the number of rising main bursts had increased markedly in recent years, running at approximately 70-80 per year.
Between 2015 and 2023 six of the 28 serious pollution incidents caused by Wessex Water have arisen from rising mains, accounting for 21% of serious incidents during that period.
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.”
'It was very sad the pollutions had such serious impacts'
Following the case Environment Agency Senior Environment Officer, Janine Maclean, said: “These cases are further examples of a water company breaking the law and causing serious pollution. It was very sad the pollutions had such serious impacts - killing fish and other aquatic life.
“Wessex Water’s rising mains are ageing and becoming vulnerable to bursting and are an area of increasing concern to the Environment Agency, presenting risk to people and the environment. We recognise the company 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 replace 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 board rooms, 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 dedicated officers are increasing our regulatory inspections of Wessex Water’s sewage pumping stations and we will also be attending more incidents, including those arising from rising mains, with the new resources we are gaining to transform the way we regulate the water industry."
'We're sorry'
A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “These incidents six years ago were caused by a burst sewerage pipe and a mechanical issue that both sadly resulted in fish dying. This shouldn't have happened and we're sorry.
“Once the problems were identified, we quickly took action to minimise environmental harm and carried out emergency repairs. Since these incidents took place, we have invested in AI technology to detect where potential issues on our network might occur to further protect the environment.
“We’re planning a step change in the maintenance of our sewerage network and, if approved by our regulators, are proposing to spend £300m in this area by 2030.”