20th Feb 2015 13:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - South West Water, part of Pennon Group PLC, Friday was ordered to pay a total of over GBP50,000 after contaminating Woodbury?s Polly Brook with poor quality sewage which resulted in the death of a number of fish.
"Exeter Crown Court heard how a combination of plant break down, telemetry failures and poor management on the part of South West Water resulted in Woodbury?s Polly Brook becoming contaminated with poor quality sewage, which subsequently led to the death of a number of fish," said the Environment Agency.
South West Water admitted to two charges, one of allowing sewage that had not been fully treated to pollute the stream and the second being the failure to notify the Environment Agency of the problems.
The Agency was first alerted to the problem by two separate members of the public at the end of August.
"We received two reports of pollution from members of the public who had noticed sewage fungus and dead fish in Polly Brook. However, South West Water did not notify us of issues as required by the terms of their permit," said the Agency.
"After investigating the watercourse in question, the Environment Agency subsequently found that the conditions of the permit had been breached. It was found that two stages of the sewage treatment process were causing issues. The first stage involved the aeration treatment which, when working effectively, ensures that sewage does not turn septic," said the Agency.
In 2013, this key part of the treatment was "found to have failed," and the Essex Court said the filtration system had been temporarily out of action during the period in which the pollution occurred, breaching conditions of the company's permit.
South West Water was fined GBP40,000 for exceeding the numerical discharge limits set out in the permit and GBP7,500 for failing to report this to the Environment Agency. South West Water was also ordered to pay GBP3,200 in costs.
Pennon shares were down 0.5% to 848.38 pence per share on Friday afternoon.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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