12/01/2006 - A major pollution
killed about 1,000 fish in Whittlesey Dyke
after Anglian Water failed to respond to
an alarm quickly enough.
Almost 2 million litres of sewage were
discharged into a stream leading to Whittlesey
Dyke – the equivalent content of an olympic-sized
swimming pool of sewage.
Anglian Water should have sent someone
to Whittlesey Sewage Treatment Works within
three hours of the automated alarm being
activated but it was 30 hours before an
employee arrived to put right the fault.
Peterborough magistrates today fined the
company £15,000 and ordered them to
pay full Environment Agency costs of £2,210
after they pleaded guilty to on or about
4 September 2004 causing sewage effluent
to be discharged into controlled waters,
namely a tributary of Whittlesey Dyke at
Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, contrary to
s85(3) and (6) of the Water Resources Act
1991.
At the time of the offence Anglian Water
had permission to discharge ‘screened sewage
in an emergency’ into the stream if there
was an electrical or mechanical failure,
with the condition that there should be
no undue delay by the water company in remedying
the fault.
However, there was a delay and it is estimated
that 2 million litres of untreated sewage
(with most of the solids held back by a
screen) discharged into the stream and polluted
it for about 3km killing around 1,000 silver
fish.
Anglian Water said the problem at the sewage
works had arisen due to a reduction in electricity
power which caused two pumps to switch off
but not to reset. As a result, the incoming
sewage overflowed.
A member of staff whose name was on the
work order to attend the works to deal with
the high level alarm within three hours
said he had not been contacted to go. He
did not know about the incident until three
days later.
Another member of staff on standby was
called by Anglian Water control room about
a possible pollution the day after the alarm
had gone off. He discovered the pumps weren’t
working and restarted them, stopping the
sewage from overflowing.
After the hearing Environment Agency officer
Greg Oakes said: ‘On this occasion Anglian
Water failed to respond adequately to an
alarm, which could have prevented this significant
pollution incident. We hope this fine reminds
water companies to ensure their procedures
for responding to alarms are robust and
effective.’
