£1.1m fine for water company over sewage pollution

YORKSHIRE WATER has been hit with a £1.1m fine for illegally discharging sewage into the River Ouse.

The business was sentenced last Friday after an investigation by the Environment Agency.

It had previously admitted three environmental offences relating to the operation of its Naburn treatment works in Fulford, after a pump failed with no back up.

The Environment Agency prosecuted the company after its officers spotted the pollution while carrying out a monitoring survey on the river in August 2013.The sewage discharging from the works into the Ouse spread 200 metres to the Naburn Marina.

Mike Riby, environment management team leader at the Environment Agency, said after the case: “Water companies have a legal duty to ensure that their operations do not pose a threat to the environment.

“In this case, Yorkshire Water failed to have in place appropriate pumping equipment needed to process sewage at its Naburn treatment works. The resulting pollution had an impact on the quality of the water in the Ouse, affecting up to a kilometre of the river.

“We hope the court’s sentencing decision demonstrates the importance of companies adhering to environmental permitting rules. If anyone sees any pollution of this kind, we would urge them to report the matter to our incident hotline on 0800 807060 so we can investigate.”

In mitigation, the company said that since April 2015 it has been running a distribution centre that supplies spare pumps and parts to enable it to replace and repair broken pumps.

Yorkshire Water was also ordered to pay £27,073.69 costs.