Southern Water has apologised for a pollution incident after pumps failed at its Brook Road Pumping Station in Swalecliffe, Kent, resulting in the imposition of a £500,000 fine in court yesterday.
In a case brought by the Environment Agency, the water company pleaded guilty to the offence during a hearing at Canterbury Crown Court on October 22. The case continued on November 12 when the company was fined £500,000.
The Agency charged the company with contravening an environmental permit at its Brook Road Pumping Station following a release of wastewater into Swalecliffe Brook on July 21, 2013.
The pumping station receives flows from the local area and pumps them to Swalecliffe Wastewater Treatment Works. The incident happened when the pumps failed after one became blocked with debris such as wet wipes, causing screened wastewater to enter the brook. Alerts were received at the company’s control room advising of a problem on site. Southern Water said that regrettably these were misinterpreted and a response was arranged for the following day, rather than immediately.
A clean-up operation began as soon as the incident became apparent. This included deploying tankers to suck up the affected water, which was largely removed within 24 hours of the incident occurring.
Southern Water’s Chief Executive Matthew Wright said:
“We are deeply sorry for this incident. Any pollution is regrettable which is why we pleaded guilty and accepted responsibility."
“The delay in attending promptly was due to us failing to interpret the relevant alerts at an early stage but when we became aware of the incident we responded quickly. We have since carried out an extensive investigation and measures have been put in place to reduce the risk of this happening again."
“This includes spending hundreds of thousands of pounds improving the pumping station, including replacing the pumps to make them more resilient to blockages. In addition, we’ve earmarked more than £1.6 million for future work at the site to enhance the reliability of the infrastructure.”
Southern Water is among a number of the UK water companies currently conducting major public awareness campaigns to highlight the problems and additional costs they face as a result of inappropriate items such as wet wipes, plasters and cotton buds being flushed into the sewer network. The articles then mix with a greasy mass of congealed cooking oils and fats, causing blockages which threaten to flood homes with wastewater.
In September alone, more than 1,750 tons of non-biodegradable items had to be removed from Southerrn Water’s treatments works.
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