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£380,000 penalty for Yorkshire Water, after Harrogate watercourse is polluted with sewage (19 August 2016)

Date: 19/08/2016
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, £380,000 penalty for Yorkshire Water, after Harrogate watercourse is polluted with sewage

The Environment Agency has prosecuted Yorkshire Water, after an illegal sewage discharge polluted the Rud Beck and the River Crimple in Harrogate.

At Bradford Crown Court on Wednesday (17/08/16), Yorkshire Water was fined £350,000 for illegally discharging sewage that polluted the Harrogate watercourse. Yorkshire Water was also ordered to pay £30,000 costs to the Environment Agency.

The company previously pleading guilty to an environmental permitting offence relating to the pollution incident caused by a sewer overflow near Sherwood Drive in Harrogate in April 2013.

At the time of the offence, the company had reported a blockage in the sewer which had caused untreated and unscreened sewage to flow into Rud Beck at Sherwood Drive. Inspections by the Environment Agency found that the pollution had had a significant impact on Rud Beck and the River Crimple, into which the beck runs.

The court heard that toilet rolls and rags could be seen in the watercourse –
and the water downstream was a cloudy, yellow-grey colour and smelt strongly of sewage.

Samples showed high levels of ammonia and low levels of dissolved oxygen.

Yorkshire Water had notified the Environment Agency of the blockage on 15 April 2013 – but further investigations revealed that sewage had been discharging from the overflow since 12 April 2013.

The company had not responded sooner because its telemetry alarm system – used to alert the company to discharges – had been malfunctioning since 15 March 2013. The alarm had not been reset following a previous alarm on 16 March 2013, which was triggered by a permitted discharge during high flows.

The company had also failed to detect an increase in the telemetry levels on 12 April 2013.

After sentencing, a spokesperson for the Environment Agency said:

“Sewage overflows of this type can be used for discharging effluent into a watercourse – but only in storm situations when water flows are too high for the sewerage system to cope with the increased volume of water.

“Storm conditions were not present at the time of this incident – and untreated sewage entered the beck for 87 hours, causing significant pollution affecting over five kilometres of Rud Beck and the Crimple.

“It is not uncommon for foreign objects to enter a sewer and cause blockages and this is why telemetry is so important.

“The impact of this discharge would have been significantly less if the telemetry had been working properly – or if Yorkshire Water had detected the increase in the telemetry levels and responded sooner.”

In mitigation, the court heard that Yorkshire Water had not sought to evade its responsibility for the incident and had self-reported the incident, as well as pleading guilty at the first opportunity.

The company had also co-operated with the Environment Agency’s investigation – and had organised and paid for the clean up.

The court heard that a planned telemetry upgrade had gone ahead in May 2013 – the company said that, since the incident, it had introduced a clear escalation procedure for responding to apparent contradictions in its telemetry system.

Duncan Lewis Criminal Solicitors

Duncan Lewis criminal solicitors can advise companies and individuals at any stage of an environmental offence – including at the start of an investigation by the Environment Agency or local authority, or before charges are brought.

There are Duncan Lewis offices nationwide and in most major cities – and Duncan Lewis advises on environmental offences involving failing to comply with an enforcement notice, waste management offences, waste carrier offences, misuse of permitted land, fly tipping, contaminating a watercourse, noise pollution, air pollution, and fisheries offences.

For expert legal advice on environmental offences, call Duncan Lewis criminal solicitors on 0333 772 0409.

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