Severn Trent fined over brook pollution in Shropshire
Severn Trent Water has been fined £7,500 after it admitted polluting a brook in south Shropshire with raw sewage.
The water firm pleaded guilty to polluting the Pudding Brook in Cleobury Mortimer when it appeared at Telford Magistrates Court yesterday.
As well as the £7,500 fine, the firm was ordered to pay £2,232.60 costs, along with a £15 victim surcharge. The charges were brought by the Environment Agency under Regulation 38(1)(a) and Regulation 12(1)(b) of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010.
After the hearing Adam Shipp, an Environment Agency officer, said: "This incident illustrates the importance of notifying us of an incident at the earliest opportunity.
"Even though on the first day of the incident Severn Trent Water had received four separate calls from members of the public telling them that sewage was entering the watercourse, they failed to report anything to the Environment Agency and their contractors failed to inspect the nearby watercourse.
"On a positive note, and as a result of this incident, Severn Trent Water have retrained their staff and contractors and have ensured that all their crews now carry maps of the sewer system."
On September 29, 2012, the Environment Agency received a report from a resident that sewage was discharging from a manhole at Cleobury Mortimer and was entering the Pudding Brook. An Environment Agency officer spoke to Severn Trent Water's customer operations centre, which confirmed that another incident had been reported the previous day but there were no further details.
During this call the officer asked for a Severn Trent Water crew to attend the site of the pollution to investigate the claims.
A camera survey found that an electric cable had been installed incorrectly through the sewer pipe and was trapping rags and other debris leading to a blockage of the system, so sewage was flowing from a manhole into a drain and into an adjacent stream.
Downstream of the discharge the brook was cloudy in appearance and smelled of sewage and detergent whilst upstream the river was running clear. On the following day it was reported again that sewage was still entering the stream and a further tanker was sent to site where it remained until the source of the blockage was removed and the sewer repaired.
