Thames Water Utilities Limited has been fined £4 million for
discharging an estimated half a million litres of raw sewage into
the Seacourt and Hinksey streams in Oxford on 24 and 25 July
2016. The water company has also been ordered to pay the
prosecution costs in the sum of £90,713.
The discharge lasted approximately 30 hours and flowed for at
least 3.5 kilometres along the streams, through a pub garden and
past community allotments. The Environment Agency believes it was
responsible for the deaths of up to 3,000 fish, including perch,
chub, roach, gudgeon and bullheads, some of them up to nine years
old.
The court heard how the company had failed to carry out essential
maintenance to prevent blockages in a sewer that it already knew
was vulnerable to blockages. It had no system in place to
identify blockages or pollution occurring and instead relied, not
for the first time, on observations by members of the public. It
was an incident that was foreseeable and avoidable.
Judge Francis Sheridan said that this was yet another very
serious breach of legislation in an area of outstanding natural
beauty and that the waterfall of raw sewage was a disgraceful
state of affairs. He pointed out that the environment is not ours
to treat as our own and that we are living on borrowed time.
Alluding to the missing manual document, he said that the
failings in this case were frankly embarrassing and that this
cannot happen again.
The incident was reported to the Environment Agency by canoeists
who found themselves paddling in sewage amongst dead fish.
Environment Agency officers attended the scene and successfully
traced the pollution to its source.
Robert Davis, an attending Environment Agency senior officer,
said:
It was quite horrific. Sewage pollution was bank to bank and
there was a foul stench of raw sewage. When we traced the source
we found a waterfall of raw sewage discharging via a pipe into
the streams. Amongst the dead fish, Fisheries officers observed
hundreds more on the surface, suffering and gasping for oxygen.
The court also heard that during a major sewer renewal project in
2012, Thames Water opted for a solution which saved them many
millions and which critically relied upon a six monthly cleaning
of the sewer to prevent the known risk of blockages. However, the
company failed to comply with the permit in not having a
documented programme covering the maintenance of the downstream
sewer, despite being in possession of a manual which clearly
outlined the requirement for maintenance and the risk of blockage
and pollution if it was not carried out. Through a painstaking
criminal investigation, it transpired that the water company had
failed to adequately maintain this high risk section of sewer for
at least 16 years.
The Environment Agency had previously issued Thames Water with
two formal warnings following earlier pollution from the same
discharge point due to an earlier blockage in February and March
2012.
The court was told how the water company failed to disclose
highly relevant documents, including a maintenance manual, until
the 11th hour and only after members of the public had brought
one of them to the attention of the Environment Agency.
Robert Davis added:
This fine sends out a clear warning to the boards of all water
companies – invest heavily in maintaining your sewers and don’t
drop the ball when it comes to carrying out that maintenance.
Incidents like this are preventable and are completely
unacceptable, particularly at a time when the need to protect the
water environment for wildlife and people has never been greater
and when public consciousness on environmental matters is so
high. We’d urge anyone that sees suspected water pollution to
report it to us immediately on our Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70
60.
This latest conviction brings the total amount of fines levied
against Thames Water since 2017 to £32.4 million for 11 cases of
water pollution across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and
Buckinghamshire.
It also follows the announcement yesterday that the
Environment Agency and Ofwat have both launched new
investigations into sewage treatment works after new
checks led to water companies admitting that they could be
releasing unpermitted sewage discharges. Any company caught
breaching their permits could face a range of possible
enforcement action – up to and including prosecution.
