A water company contractor has been ordered to pay £9,736 in fines and costs after sewage leaked into the sea on a Blue Flag beach at Dawlish at the start of the town’s annual carnival and the height of the bathing season. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.
On July 16 magistrates heard how Teignbridge Council displayed red flags on Dawlish Town beach advising people not to go in the sea because of possible contamination of the bathing water by untreated sewage.
The Environment Agency was alerted on August 12, 2006 when it received a report of a discharge from the Viaduct Sewage Pumping Station at Dawlish. South West Water became aware of a problem at the pumping station the previous day when it received a ‘high level’ alarm indicating that the pumps had stopped working. The alarm was passed to one of its contractors, Engenica, who are employed to provide maintenance and a 24 hour emergency ‘call out’ service to pumping stations.
Checks by the Agency showed it was a full 19 hours before anyone arrived at the Viaduct Pumping Station to rectify the problem. Once notified, an engineer should respond to an alarm immediately, yet nobody was on site until the following day. A prompt response may have prevented the discharge of 500 – 600 cubic metres of sewage from this pumping station. The court heard that Engenica is now owned by the London-based company Veolia Water Outsourcing Ltd.
‘Sewage pumping stations must be maintained and operated to the highest standards by water companies and their contractors. This is especially important in busy holiday resorts where the protection of nearby bathing beaches from pollution is a priority. The whole point of having an alarm system is to respond to it,’ said Brian Grant for the Environment Agency.
Veolia Water Outsourcing of Pentonville Road, London was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £2,736 costs by Totnes magistrates after pleading guilty to causing sewage effluent to be discharged into controlled waters, namely Lyme Bay, contrary to Section 85(3) of the Water Resources Act 1991. In December 2007 South West Water was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £3,500 costs for its involvement in the same incident.
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