Following a prosecution by the Environment Agency, Anglian Water has been fined £1.63 million at Chelmsford Magistrates Court.
The Agency brought the prosecution in relation to breaches of the company’s Environmental Permit for its Braintree Water Recycling Centre between April and June 2022.
Commenting on the prosecution, an Anglian Water spokesperson said:
“We acknowledge our procedures fell well below the high standard we set for ourselves and that this led to unacceptably high ammonia levels leaving our Braintree Water Recycling Centre on two occasions in 2022. We care deeply about any impact we have on the environment and apologise for the effect we had on the River Brain.
“Reducing pollutions and spills is our number one operational focus, and since these incidents happened four years ago, we’ve undertaken a radical review of our Water Recycling team and how it operates – a change in leadership, with a new Director of Water Recycling, culture, data intelligence, systems, processes and new investment. The Water Recycling team has acted on the learnings from this event and has additional resources and asset monitoring to help reduce the potential for such incidents.”
According to the water company, the £11 billion AMP8 investment plan it is delivering between 2025 and 2030 is putting in place more of the infrastructure to deliver the performance that customers expect, which includes improving environmental performance.
Anglian Water says it is well underway with delivering the investment to build new infrastructure and upgrade its asset base, which is one of the largest, most geographically spread asset bases in the UK water sector.
The utility manages 1,200 Water Recycling Centres, 1,100 Drinking Water Treatment Works alongside thousands of water towers, pumping stations and storage points and more than 100,000 kilometres of underground pipes and sewers.
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