Water firm fined for polluting stream with sewage three times in a year
A water company has been fined more than £700,000 for polluting a country park stream with sewage three times in a year, the Environment Agency has said.
The agency said one incident at Pools Brook Country Park, in Staveley, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, resulted in fish and river insects being killed, and another affected the stream for 700 metres. It said on Monday that Yorkshire Water has been fined £733,333 at Derby Crown Court after pleading guilty to three pollution offences. Yorkshire Water apologised but pointed out that the incidents were seven years ago and it had since relocated the two sewers involved at a cost of more than £2.5 million. The agency said the first pollution incident happened on October 1 2018 when a rising main sewer pipe burst because of severe corrosion, causing untreated sewage to spill into the stream, which runs into the River Doe Lea. Fish including tench, pike and roach were killed as more than 600 metres of the watercourse was affected. It said the second incident on February 27 2019 was caused by a blockage, mainly of wet wipes, in the plastic foul sewer pipe. This led to a leak in the foul pipe which was suspended on chains inside a surface water sewer pipe, for rainwater, which runs into the Pools Brook stream. The impact was over a 700-metre stretch, but there was no evidence of fish being affected. The agency said the third incident on August 7 2019, was caused by a failure of a joint coupling in the same plastic foul sewer pipe, but in a different location. This affected a 600-metre stretch, but there was also no evidence fish were affected. Environment Agency chairman Alan Lovell said: “Polluting the same stream three times in less than a year is unacceptable and we’re pleased Yorkshire Water has now been dealt with by the courts following our investigation. “We expect full compliance and are committed to taking robust enforcement action where we see serious breaches.” Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said: “This repeated sewage pollution by Yorkshire Water is appalling and the £733,000 fine handed out today sends a clear message that polluters will pay.” A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “No pollution incident is ever acceptable. “We want to apologise for the impact the incidents at Pools Brook had in 2018 and 2019 which were the result of an inadequate external protective coating being applied to one of the sewers and wet wipes building up and causing blockages in the other sewer.” The firm said it had been seven years since the last incident at Pools Brook, during which time it had invested more than £2.5 million to relocate the two sewers involved in these incidents as well as “identifying key learnings which have been embedded across our business”. It said it is investing £8.3 billion before 2030 “to improve service levels, reduce any negative impact on the environment, and make the water infrastructure in Yorkshire fit for the future”.
Published: by Radio NewsHub