Southern Water has been fined £330,000 after a sewage spill incident near Southampton led to the death of almost 2,000 fish.
The spill, caused by a double pump failure at the Little Bull pumping station in Waltham Chase, occurred in July 2019, with untreated effluent diverted into Shawford Lake Stream.
Investigations by the Environment Agency revealed pools of dirty water and pollution spreading nearly three kilometres downstream, affecting habitats and wildlife.
Southern Water pleaded guilty to breaching environmental regulations and was ordered to pay additional costs and a victim surcharge.
Dawn Theaker, Environment Manager in Hampshire for the Environment Agency, said: “We prosecuted Southern Water because of environmental harm caused by the pollution, a direct result of negligence in how the pumping station was managed.
“Yet again, we have a water company failing to properly respond to alarms when things go wrong at facilities they operate, allowing sewage to flow uncontrolled into fields and a stream. The court agreed with our case that Southern Water was negligent.
“Any pollution is unacceptable, but this one happened close to a Site of Special Scientific Interest and other designations meant to provide greater protection for nature.”
Water minister Robbie Moore, from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “Southern Water have rightly been punished today for damage to our natural environment and it’s just the latest example of how polluters are being held to account.
“Today’s fine will be paid into our Water Restoration Fund, which will support further work we are already doing to clean up our waterways.”
Richard Manning, General Counsel and Company Secretary at Southern Water, said: “We are very sorry that this unacceptable historical incident in 2019 led to environmental damage.
“As soon as we became aware of this event, we took action to reduce its impact on the local area, and have since co-operated fully with the Environment Agency’s investigation, pleading guilty at the first opportunity.
“In acknowledgement of our role, we have already compensated the YMCA and set up a £140,000 grant scheme with the Groundwork South Trust to aid habitat improvement.
“Learning from this incident also led to a comprehensive review of our more than 3,000 unmanned pumping stations to ensure those at highest risk were fit for purpose, leading to a rolling programme of improvements to equipment and monitoring technology which has already cost more than £13 million.
“We have learnt from this incident and welcome the judge’s comments that the company has made good progress in its turnaround plan since 2019 and more recently.
“Five years on from this event we have a new leadership team, new shareholders and we are spending £3 billion – the equivalent to £1,500 per household – between 2020 and 2025 to improve performance.”
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