South West Water has been ordered to pay £39,365 in fines and costs for a pollution incident which occurred close to a shellfishery, allowing sewage to escape into the River Dart near Galmpton in South Devon. Telemetry problems and pump failure were contributory factors in the incident.

The Environment Agency said the offences resulted from the failure of South West Water to respond appropriately to the loss of communication with one of its pumping stations  and that despite clear indications of problems at the site, the water company had failed to act. 

On May 19, 2011 a member of the public reported pollution at Galmpton Quay. An Environment Agency officer visited the site and found discoloured water entering a tidal section of the Dart estuary at Galmpton Creek. The pollution was traced to a sewage pumping station operated by South West Water in Kiln Road, Galmpton.

An inspection of the site revealed that the two pumps were blocked causing a discharge of crude sewage into the creek via a culvert. Further checks revealed there had been a similar pump blockage four days earlier when South West Water staff installed a replacement pump.

During their visit, staff disconnected the telemetry line to plug in a handheld phone to overcome the poor mobile signal at the pumping station. Unfortunately, when they left the site they forgot to re-connect the telemetry (communication) line.

On May 17, 2011 the control room at South West Water received an alarm saying there had been a ‘total communications failure’ at Galmpton. An error by the water company’s administration team meant that no visit was made to the site to check whether the pumping station was operating correctly.

On May 18, the temporary pump failed and this triggered a series of alarms at the site, none of which were picked up by the water company’s control room because the telemetry cable was still unplugged. Records at the site showed that sewage started to spill from the pumping station on the afternoon of May 18 and that discharges continued intermittently throughout the day and night.

A shellfishery operated by Brixham Sea Farms Ltd is only around 600 metres from Galmpton Creek. Because of close proximity of the oyster beds and possible risk of contamination, the Agency informed South Hams District Council’s Environmental Health Department of the pollution. Brixham Sea Farms Ltd agreed not to sell any shellfish until they received confirmation the shellfish beds were unaffected by the discharge.

A sample of shellfish flesh taken on May 19, 2011 was found to contain ‘extremely high’ levels of E.coli bacteria. The maximum permitted limit is 100 per 100g of flesh. The sample contained 24,000 per 100g. The shellfishery was finally given the ‘all clear’ on May 27, after a second sample was obtained and found to be within safe limits.

There was a second pollution incident at Galmpton on August 20, 2011 when once again, untreated sewage was discharged into Galmpton Creek.

‘These offences resulted from the failure of South West Water to respond appropriately to the loss of communication with one of its pumping stations.  There were clear indications of problems at the site, yet the water company failed to act.  This resulted in illegal discharges of sewage into the Dart estuary,’ said Steve Foot for the Environment Agency.

In a case brought by the Environment Agency, South West Water appeared before Torbay magistrates on Friday last week. The company was fined a total of £37,000 and ordered to pay £2,365 costs after pleading guilty to three offences under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010 including discharging poisonous, noxious or polluting matter into an inland freshwater and failing to ensure the standby pump at Kiln Road Pumping Station, Galmpton operated in accordance with the site’s environmental permit.