Southern Water fined £330K for pumping raw sewage into Hampshire stream

Around 2,000 fish were killed as result of the 2019 discharge

Author: Faye TryhornPublished 27th Feb 2024

Southern Water's been fined £330,000 for releasing untreated sewage into a Hampshire stream.

Over 2,000 fish, including brown trout, bullheads and sticklebacks, were pulled from Shawford Lake Stream in Waltham Chase following the incident in July 2019.

The company admitted the discharge could have been taking place for 20 hours.

Investigators say they found no live fish at all during their checks on site

The Environment Agency has called Southern Water 'negligent' for failing to respond to emergency alarms, following problems at their Little Bull pumping station.

Pools of dirty water and polluted matter and vegetation were found in local fields after the incident, with the stream turning cloudy as pollution spread across nearly 3km.

Ammonia levels in the water were 25 times the legal limit.

The sewage spread across a 3 km area, turning the stream cloudy and affecting local fields

Dawn Theaker, environment manager in Hampshire for the Environment Agency, said:

“We prosecuted Southern Water because of environmental harm caused by the pollution, a direct result of negligence in how the pumping station was managed.

“Yet again, we have a water company failing to properly respond to alarms when things go wrong at facilities they operate, allowing sewage to flow uncontrolled into fields and a stream. The court agreed with our case that Southern Water was negligent.

“Any pollution is unacceptable, but this one happened close to a Site of Special Scientific Interest and other designations meant to provide greater protection for nature.”

Almost 2,000 fish died following the incident at Shawford Lake Stream in Waltham Chase

Water minister Robbie Moore MP, from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said:

“Southern Water have rightly been punished today for damage to our natural environment and it’s just the latest example of how polluters are being held to account. Today’s fine will be paid into our Water Restoration Fund, which will support further work we are already doing to clean up our waterways.

“We are delivering the changes people want to see: more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement on water companies. This includes our proposals to ban water company executive bonuses, and we recently gave the Environment Agency greater powers to impose uncapped civil penalties on polluters.”

In addition to the £330,000 fine, district judge Nicholas Wattam ordered Southern Water to pay the Environment Agency’s costs of £18,764 and a victim surcharge of £181.

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