South West Water was today ordered to pay £7,600 in fines and costs after sewage from one of its pumping stations polluted a tributary of the River Yealm in South Devon. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.
In early 2007 the Agency received a number of complaints from members of the public about sewage discharges from Elburton (South) Pumping Station.
On January 9, 2007 an Agency officer visited the pumping station and found sewage discharging from the site into a nearby stream. The watercourse had turned grey and showed signs of ‘serious contamination’. Sewage debris, including sanitary towels and toilet paper, was visible in waterside vegetation. Fungus was growing on the bed of the stream.
Further complaints prompted the Agency to carry out a second inspection of the pumping station. South West Water contractors identified a fault with one of the pumps and said it would be replaced. A new pump was installed on January 13 and the discharge to the stream stopped.
The same officer returned to the site on March 9 and was surprised to see that, once again, sewage was discharging from the pumping station into the stream during dry weather.
Further tests revealed the pumps were failing to perform to the standard required by the pumping station’s Environment Agency licence. Instead of pumping 34 litres per second the pumps were only operating at approximately 7.5 litres per second. The poor performance of the pumps resulted in more frequent and prolonged discharges into the stream.
The illegal discharges occurred despite South West Water making improvements to the Elburton Pumping Station in 2006. These included the installation of a larger capacity storm tank and screening equipment.
There is a commercial shellfishery in the River Yealm downstream of the discharge site. Any pollution could have a detrimental effect on this fishery.
‘Sewage pumping stations must operate within the terms of their licence and be fully compliant to protect the environment. With a commercial shellfishery downstream, South West Water was aware of the sensitivity of this site and should have been more diligent in its response to reports of illegal sewage discharges,’ said Mark Jacob for the Environment Agency.
South West Water was today fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £1,600 costs by Plymouth magistrates after pleading guilty to one offence under the Water Resources Act 1991 of causing sewage effluent to enter controlled waters, the Elburton Stream. The company asked for two other similar offences to be taken into consideration.
