Anglian Water hit with record £2.65m fine after sewage dumped in North Sea
It's the largest fine ever imposed for environmental offences in the East of England
Last updated 28th Apr 2023
Anglian Water has been hit with a record £2.65m fine after allowing sewage to leak into the North Sea.
The water company, which supplies East Anglia, Essex, Lincolnshire, Rutland and Cambridgeshire, as well as Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, admitted to environmental offences at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.
It's after a series of leaks at the Jaywick Water Recycling Centre in Essex between June and July 2018.
Inspectors found the equivalent of three Olympic-sized swimming pools of partially-treated sewage had leaked into the ocean.
They also noted a 'catalogue of failures' in monitoring, with Anglian Water failing to act on data which could have prevented further spills.
One sentencing, Judge King said: "more could and should have been done".
He added that it should not have taken the Environment Agency Officers to spot what was happening, with Anglian Water staff present on the site at the time of the spill.
He justified the record fine, saying “Anglian Water finds itself in court so frequently” with “a clear pattern of the Company not responding adequately” to previous penalties.
£2.65m is the most a company in the East of England has ever been fined for environmental offences. Environment Agency chair Alan Lovell said:
“The Environment Agency’s officers were instrumental in highlighting the scale of Anglian Water’s discharges into the North Sea – equivalent to three Olympic swimming pools of waste water in a month - and ensuring the water company has been made to pay for its pollution.
“The Environment Agency will pursue any water company that fails to uphold the law or protect nature and will continue to press for the strongest possible penalties.”
We have approached Anglian Water for comment on this story.