Anglian Water hit with £871k fine for causing series of pollution incidents including at Steeple Claydon

Anglian Water has been hit with a £871k fine for causing a series of pollution incidents including at Steeple Claydon.

It was found that a catalogue of system and maintenance failures caused separate incidents of pollution across Bucks, Cambridgeshire and Northants.

The list of process failures included reporting delays, faulty screening and a general breakdown in planning and maintenance, all of which caused damaging blockages and pollution.

The Water company was also ordered to pay £37,605.13 in costs at Loughborough Magistrates.

The court heard how one incident involved the pollution of a tributary of Claydon Brook, Steeple Claydon in September 2019. The source was Anglian Water Sewage Treatment Works at Steeple

Claydon in Buckinghamshire.

The site does have a screening unit on site to reduce blockages in the treatment process, but this had not been used for a few years.

The scum board, which is meant to prevent the carry-over of ‘unflushables’ and sludge from the primary settlement tanks, had been incorrectly left at the wrong end of the tank. A routine maintenance visit had also been missed. This resulted in a blockage and loss of treatment.

Anglian Water did not assess the impact on the watercourse, but high levels of organic pollution were detected in water samples. This impacted the levels of oxygen in the stream necessary for fish and invertebrate life.

Another incident involved a failure by Anglian Water, who set an alarm to the wrong village, delaying their attendance for days. A subsequent biological survey showed dead aquatic invertebrates for 1500 metres as far down as the next village, as a result.

While passing sentence, District Judge Nick Watson, said: “Anglian Water dragged its feet’ in addressing infrastructure improvements.

He said that this appeared to be: “…an endemic part of the culture of the organisation at the time of the offences.”

He added: “Water companies have a huge responsibility to proactively manage the resources they have been given a responsibility for. Profit must not be at the cost of the environment.”

All incidents took place at Anglian Water sites in Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonshire across a five-month spell, between May and September 2019.

Environment Agency prosecutor, Rebecca Chalkley, told the court that the pollutions in each case shared common features. She said they all involved missing or inadequate screens that should have strained solid waste from raw sewage. She said they all involved a delay in attending or reporting pollution incidents and all represented a failure on the part of Anglian Water to properly invest and maintain its infrastructure.

Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive at the Environment Agency, said: “We welcome this sentence. Serious pollution is a serious crime.

“The Environment Agency will pursue any water company that fails to uphold the law or protect nature, and will continue to press for the strongest possible penalties for those which do not.”

Jeremy Hay, Senior Environment Officer from the Environment Agency, said:

“This prosecution sends out the message that we will not hesitate to prosecute companies which endanger communities and disregard the environment and the law.”