Yorkshire Water fined over £700,000 for repeated sewage releases | Water

A water company has been fined more than £700,000 for repeatedly discharging sewage into a watercourse.

Yorkshire Water was handed the penalty after pleading guilty to three sewage pollution offenses in Pools Brook Country Park, near Chesterfield.

All three events killed fish and insects and polluted the stream for more than a half-mile.

The company was fined £733,333, plus costs and victim surcharges.

The court was told the first incident occurred on October 1, 2018, when a main sewer pipe rising from the Pools Brook sewage pumping station burst, causing untreated sewage to spill from a manhole into the stream which runs through the national park. The pipe was badly corroded.

Fish, including tench, pike and roach in the park pond, were killed, as were riverine insects. The impact on water quality extended over 600 meters.

The second incident, which occurred on February 27, 2019, was caused by a blockage, mainly due to wet wipes, in the plastic sewer pipe, leading to a build-up of pressure at one of the joints in the pipe.

The blockage eventually caused a sewage leak into the surface water pipe, which entered the creek.

There is no evidence of impact on fish, but water quality has been affected over 700 meters.

The third incident, on August 7, 2019, was caused by a broken joint fitting in the same plastic sewer pipe as the previous incident, but in a different location, causing sewage to spill into the surface water pipe and enter Pools Brook. Again, there was no evidence of impact on fish, but water quality was affected over 600 meters.

The Environment Agency said Yorkshire Water would not attend an interview for any of the three incidents.

Its chairman, Alan Lovell, said: “Polluting the same waterway three times in less than a year is unacceptable and we are pleased that Yorkshire Water has now gone to court following our investigation.

“We expect full compliance and are committed to taking robust enforcement action when we find serious violations. »

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “In the seven years since the last incident at Pools Brook, we have invested over £2.5 million to relocate the two sewers involved in these incidents, as well as identifying key learnings which have been incorporated across our business.

“We have also looked carefully at our business processes to improve them where necessary to ensure a similar incident does not happen again. Protecting the environment is a key part of what we aim for, so when incidents occur that are well below our normal standards, we ensure they are fully investigated and put actions in place to ensure they do not happen again.

“No pollution incident is ever acceptable. We would like to apologize for the impact of the incidents at Pools Brook in 2018 and 2019, which resulted from the application of an inadequate external protective coating to one of the sewers and the build-up of wet wipes causing blockages in the other sewer.”

The spokesperson also said the company was working on its largest ever environmental investment programme, worth £8.3 billion before 2030.