Welsh Water fined £90,000 for polluting River Wye near Hereford
It happened at a sewage treatment works, near Hereford, between August 2020 and June 2021
The Environment Agency has successfully prosecuted Welsh Water Ltd, for breaking conditions of an environmental permit at a sewage treatment works near Hereford between August 2020 and June 2021.
At Worcester Crown Court, on Friday 7 June 2024, Welsh Water Ltd entered a guilty plea and was fined £90,000 for exceeding permitted levels of sewage effluent into the River Wye, from the Kingstone and Madely Sewage Treatment Works. The company was also ordered to pay costs of £14,085.05 and a £190 surcharge.
The court was told that officers from the Environment Agency were alerted to an issue, after routine sampling results in July 2021.
The environmental permit states that during monthly sampling visits Welsh Water Ltd must not discharge effluent containing more than seven milligrams/litre of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) on more than two occasions in a 12-month period.
From 6 August 2020, to 19 June 2021, the sampling system showed that Welsh Water allowed levels to exceed the permitted levels on three occasions.
On 8 August 2020 the levels were recorded at 13 milligrams/litre, on 19 May 2021 levels were recorded at 74 milligrams/litre and 19 June 2021 levels were recorded at 41 milligrams/litre.
The court was told that such levels indicated that the treatment works was performing very poorly and that it was extremely unusual to have this many breaches in a 12-month period.
A report concluded that this showed “either poor operational management, inadequate asset provision or a mixture of both.”
Welsh Water, in mitigation, said on the first two occasions they could not identify a “root cause” for the permit breaches. On the third occasion, the company said the breach had occurred during a “significant storm.”
Adam Shipp, a Senior Environment Officer at the Environment Agency, who led the investigation, said: "Incidents like this are preventable and are completely unacceptable.
“Water companies are aware that their activities have the potential for serious environmental impacts, and they know that we will take action when they cause pollution.”
The Charge
Welsh Water, between the 5 August 2020 and June 20 2021, at the Kingstone and Madley Sewage Treatment Works, Herefordshire, failed to comply with, or contravened, an environmental permit condition.
Namely condition 8 (a) (i) of environmental permit AH1001901 (as modified from March 31 2015).
By exceeding the permitted level of 7 milligrams per litre of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) within the discharge from the said works to the Coldstone Brook, on three occasions within the said period.