A cesspool is a sealed tank designed to collect wastewater from a household, where it is then removed by a tanker and transported to a sewage treatment works where it must be treated.

As no treatment of the sewage takes place inside a cesspool there must be no discharge of this untreated sewage from the tank to the environment, whether through a deliberate overflow pipe or discharge pipe, or through any cracks or holes in the tank.

Only effluent that has been properly treated through a Sewage Treatment Plant is allowed to be discharged to a watercourse or to the ground. The strict consent system that the Environment Agency uses to regulate these discharges means that only clean water is allowed to be discharged to the environment.

Environment Officer Robert Cornell said: "The discharge of raw untreated sewage to the environment whether from a private sewage treatment plant or direct from a drain from the foul sewer is totally unacceptable. More so in this modern age with the large quantities of household chemicals found in wastewater from today’s households.

"The Environment Agency takes discharges of sewage very seriously and warns that in such cases enforcement action will be taken. This will hopefully serve as a warning to the owners of households served by cesspools to check that their cesspools are fully watertight, and that they do not have any discharge pipes or holes or cracks which could discharge untreated sewage to the environment".

Last month the Environment Agency prosecuted a Chichester man who caused sewage to enter a West Sussex watercourse after he breached an enforcement notice to seal his cesspool. Mr Jonathan Falkner pleaded guilty to both offences at Chichester Magistrates Court on Wednesday 23 November 2005. Mr Falkner was fined £500 for each offence and was ordered to pay costs of £1,014.