Anglian Water was ordered to pay £871,000 after a series of system and maintenance failures caused several incidents of pollution across Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonshire between May and September 2019.
The list of process failures included reporting delays, faulty screening and a general breakdown in planning and maintenance, all of which caused blockages and pollution. The court heard how, at one site, an unchecked build-up of ‘unflushables’ such as cotton buds and sanitary pads caused a blockage resulting in discharge of settled sludge into the treated sewage. The site was originally fitted with a screen to prevent blockages in the process but this was removed in 2018.
In a separate court case, heard at Cambridge Magistrates Court, Anglian Water was fined £350,000 after a pumped sewer at Bourn Brook at Caldecott, Cambridgeshire burst for the sixth time since 2004. Environment Agency staff visiting the site in September 2019 found ammonia and low oxygen levels in the water, posing a potential risk to wildlife. Despite efforts from Anglian Water to stop the polluted water from spreading, its methods proved insufficient and a total of 4km of the watercourse was affected for at least five days.
Environment Agency chief executive Sir James Bevan said: “Serious pollution is a serious crime and I welcome these sentences from the courts. 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.”
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