At York Crown Court last Friday, Yorkshire Water Services (YWS) Limited was fined £9,000 and ordered to pay £27,000 prosecution costs. The company had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one offence and asked for five others to be taken into consideration.

YWS, of Western House, Western Way, Bradford, admitted on 18 April 2006 breaching the suspended solids emission limit in its permit for the Tadcaster Trade Treatment Works. The other offences took place on 20 January 2006, 8 and 26 April 2006, and 4 and 18 July 2006.

The court heard from 1980 until 2008, the works biologically treated trade effluent from three breweries - Scottish & Newcastle, Coors and Samuel Smith - in the town and, subject to conditions imposed by the Environment Agency, released the treated effluent into the River Wharfe.

Chris Badger, prosecuting counsel for the Environment Agency, said in particular limits were set on the levels of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids (SS) that could be released into the River Wharfe. It was these limits that were breached.

Small amounts of oxygen dissolve naturally into water and fish and other aquatic organisms need this oxygen to breathe. Material with a high BOD concentration can removed oxygen from the water, potentially killing fish and other river life.

High levels of suspended solids can smother aquatic plants and animals, reduce light penetration and restrict plant growth, and physically harm fish.

YWS was obliged to take daily samples of effluent and notify the Environment Agency if any breached permitted levels.

Systems alarms turned off

When an environment officer visited in early April 2006, he discovered system alarms had been turned off, prompting him to send YWS a warning letter. On 5 May, YWS notified the Environment Agency of a breach on 18 April 2006.

Mr Badger said the SS levels on that date were found to be almost 10 times those permitted and the breach was classified in the highest risk category, posing a “major environmental impact”. One of the offences taken into consideration also fell in this category, while the remainder were in the second-highest risk category, posing a “significant environmental impact”.

He said from the end of 2004, the company knowingly left itself in a position where it would be receiving more waste into the treatment works than it had capacity to process.

The court heard YWS had a number of previous convictions and had been cautioned for four offences of breaching its permit conditions between May 2004 and July 2004.

Dominic Kay, in mitigation, said the breaches were not intentional and the company had spent years attempting to implement measures to comply with the terms of the permit. YWS was given credit for a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity.

Speaking after the case, industry regulation team leader Howard Stuttard said:

“We welcome today’s sentence. The Environment Agency regulates treatment plants such as Yorkshire Water’s as part of its efforts to protect and improve water quality.

“We will not hesitate to prosecute companies or individuals who cause pollution, to the detriment of the environment.”