Southern Water ignored the alarm for five hours during the sewage leak at Shawford Lake Stream that killed 2,000 fish (Picture: PA)
A water company has been fined £330,000 for dumping raw sewage into a stream for up to 20 hours after failing to respond to an alarm.
Southern Water pleaded guilty at Southampton Magistrates’ Court to a breach of environmental regulations.
The actions resulted in the killing of 2,000 fish at Shawford Lake Stream in Waltham Chase, Hampshire, on July 21 2019 after the alarm went off for five hours.
Ammonia levels 32 times higher than permitted were discharged into a 1.5 mile stretch of stream after it poured out from two manholes.
The sewage also went across fields and into YMCA Fairthorne Manor activity centre, which was compensated for having to cancel 1,000 bookings with no water sports taking place for 10 days.
Shawford Lake Stream was also closed for water activities for 10 days.
Prosecutor Rebecca Vanstone said an officer attended the scene two hours after the report was made to find a ‘clear route’ of discharge running from the manhole to the stream.
Water was also flowing from another manhole and an area of ‘discoloured ground’ was found.
Sewage was pouring into this stream for up to 20 hours (Picture: Environment Agency/PA)
Dead fish pictured following the sewage leak (Picture: Environment Agency/Solent News)
Ms Vanstone said: ‘The officer drove downstream, where water was cloudy, there was an odour and multiple dead fish were found.
‘140 metres downstream a further 54 dead fish and no live fish were observed.’
The leak was caused by a pumping station that was wrongly programmed, an Environment Agency spokesperson said.
He said: ‘This led to a pump failing. When a second one wouldn’t start, sewage and other hazardous substances were diverted up through two manholes, across fields and into Shawford Lake Stream, leading to the popular YMCA Fairthorne Manor.
‘In the days after the incident in July 2019, investigators from the Environment Agency found pools of dirty water and polluted matter and vegetation in local fields.
‘The stream was cloudy as pollution spread across nearly 3km. Ammonia levels in the water were 25 times the legal limit.
‘Scores of brown trout and other dead fish continued to be discovered. Tens became hundreds as the scale of the pollution emerged.’
Southern Water apologised for the incident that happened in 2019 (Picture: Environment Agency/PA)
He added: ‘Investigators believe the illegal flow of contaminated matter continued over public land and the stream for between five and 20 hours.
‘The number of fish killed grew as the investigation went on. Brown trout, bullheads and sticklebacks all found lifeless in the water – 1,954 in all. Investigators saw no live fish in parts of the stream, only dead ones.’
For Southern Water, Dominic Kay KC said: ‘Very, very significant changes to this company have been made since this incident.
‘The company wishes to express its genuine remorse at the outset. This was something of a freak incident.
‘An investigation from Southern Water found the specialist sub-contractor had reset the replacement pump’s overload too low.
‘This isn’t a case where Southern Water is trying to blame its third party contractors, but at the same time it is a failure of a third party contractor which is the root cause of a problem.’
The judge said the pollution as a result of the sewage spill was ‘unacceptable’ (Picture: Environment Agency/Solent News)
District Judge Nicholas Wattam said the large fine should highlight ‘the need to improve regulatory compliance’.
Dawn Theaker, environment manager in Hampshire for the Environment Agency, said: ‘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.
‘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.’
Richard Manning from 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.
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‘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.
‘Almost five years on from this incident, we now have a new leadership team and shareholders, and are continuing to deliver our landmark Turnaround Plan at pace – ensuring improvements are achieved across the board, including tackling pollutions which have been slashed from 430 in 2019 to 358 last year and a further dramatic drop is due to be announced shortly.’
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