SERIOUS POLLUTION CASE FOR NORTHUMBRIAN WATER


Environmental Panorama
International
May of 2008


Rob Walsh - 15-May-2008 - Northumbrian Water were fined £4,000 in Sunderland Magistrates Court today (May 15) for seriously polluting a stream in County Durham with raw sewage.

The company, based in Durham, pleaded guilty and were also ordered to pay full costs of £2,022.91 to the Environment Agency, which brought the case.

Trevor Cooper, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that Northumbrian Water had contacted the Environment Agency on 2 November 2007 to report raw sewage discharging from a manhole into the Elemore Vale Burn at Easington Lane.

Environment Agency officers met with Northumbrian Water at the site on 3 November and found the watercourse was grossly polluted with sewage fungus and black sludge and there was a strong odour of sewage.

An Ecological Appraisal Officer from the Environment Agency carried out an ecological survey of the watercourse on 5 November 2007, which found that the incident had a major negative impact on the ecology of the watercourse and that the effects would be highly detrimental and long-lasting. Untreated and decaying sewage was seen for over 1 kilometre downstream and invertebrate life was killed for at least 500 metres downstream.

It was discovered that a manhole cover had been removed by vandals and the manhole chamber was full of debris including stones, rubble and a plant pot, which caused the sewer to block. This led to sewage backing up and discharging into the watercourse.

The sewer had been on a regular maintenance checklist following a previous raw sewage discharge in August 2003, but it was taken off this in 2006 as no further problems had been encountered. It has now been placed on a monthly check.

Although the Elemore Vale Burn is only a small watercourse in the Elemore Vale area of Easington Lane, it flows through an area of high amenity value next to a public footpath and also skirts a football ground and residential area.

In mitigation it was said that the company offered an early guilty plea, that they had reported the incident and had co-operated fully with the Environment Agency. Their culpability was low because of the actions of the vandals.

Charge: On or before 2nd November 2007 did cause polluting matter, namely crude sewage, to enter controlled waters, namely the Elemore Vale Burn, Easington Lane, Elemore Vale, County Durham. Contrary to Section 85(1) and 85(6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.

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Honour for Environment Agency Walham flood heroes

Michelle Dolphin - 15-May-2008 - On Thursday 15 May 2008 Environment Agency Walham flood hero, Richard Evans, was presented with the Chairman’s Award from the Rivers and Coastal Group (RCG) of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM).

Mr Evans accepted the award on behalf of the Environment Agency Operations Delivery Teams from Gloucester, Kidderminster and Shrewsbury whose bravery and hard work saved Walham electricity switching station from flooding last July. He was accompanied by Chris Griffin of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, joint winner of the award, one of the fire officers pumping water out from behind the Environment Agency’s temporary defences.

The RCG committee were unanimous in their decision to award the prize jointly to the Environment Agency and Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue for their work to save Walham. The trophy and certificates were presented by RCG Chairman, Jackie Banks, at their spring meeting at Austin Court, Birmingham today.

National Grid switching station, Walham, just north of Gloucester on the banks of the River Severn, provides electricity to half a million homes in Gloucestershire and South Wales. In July 2007, several days of record rainfall caused widespread flooding, threatening to knock out those vital power supplies and leave residents in the cold and dark.

A call from COBRA, the Government’s emergency contingencies committee, came through Gold Control on the afternoon of Sunday 22 July 2007 asking the Environment Agency to protect the site from the rising floodwater.

Having been instructed not to put their hands above head height because of electricity cables barely an arm’s length away, over twenty Environment Agency men, under the direction of manager Brian Jones, worked through the night in floodwater next to live switches to erect temporary flood defences around the switching station.

Team members reported afterwards that they could hear the electricity crackling and buzzing and see it arcing against the night sky while they fought to erect the barriers in time. They were supported by military personnel and Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue.

Award winner Richard Evans said “It is an honour to accept this award on behalf of the team that worked so hard save Walham from flooding last July.

“Like so many of my colleagues, I had already been out since early morning doing debris clearing and was on the way home when I got the call to go over to Walham. I never did get back to my house that night.

“We quickly realised that it was a race against the clock but we had no history or experience of having worked at this site. We went into the unknown but we did the job – and safely - at the end of the day, saving half a million homes from being plunged into darkness.”

The original idea to use the temporary barriers to save Walham came from Environment Agency Flood Risk Manager, Anthony Perry, who says:

“It's really good that our heroes on the ground at Walham have been acknowledged for their hard work. The Environment Agency’s temporary flood barriers saved Walham, and the ingenuity, expertise and dedication of Environment Agency staff made it possible.

“They were prepared to try something new in dangerous and difficult circumstances to save the switching station from flooding and homes and businesses across Gloucestershire and South Wales from losing their electricity supplies.”

 
 

Source: Environment Agency – United Kingdom
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