Severn Trent settles sewage spill with £374,000 donation

Severn Trent Water has agreed to make a voluntary payment of £327,500 to Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust after the Environment Agency found that raw sewage from a blocked sewer had been discharged into Dimore Brook near Gloucester, polluting the watercourse.

After receiving reports on 19 August 2021 of dead fish in the brook, the agency inspected the site and found “hundreds of dead sticklebacks and thousands of dead invertebrates plus several eels and a number of bullhead fish”. It also found what it believed to be sewage fungus growing in the watercourse for about 1km, covering the entire width of the brook.

Severn Trent’s donation was made under an Enforcement Undertaking – an offer, usually to an environmental charity, made by companies and individuals that the Environment Agency has found to have committed an offence.

An ecological impact assessment concluded that 1.7km of Dimore Brook had been affected, and that “the vast majority of aquatic animal life had been killed by the sewage discharge”. Environment Agency officers said that Severn Trent had responded to the incident in a timely manner.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust is reported to be using the Enforcement Undertaking funds in a three-year programme to improve various projects close to the impacted area.

Investigating officer for the West Midlands Environment Agency, Ian Skuse, said: “While we will always take forward prosecutions in the most serious cases, Enforcement Undertakings are an effective enforcement tool to enable companies to put things right and contribute to environmental improvements.

“They allow polluters to correct and restore the harm caused to the environment and prevent repeat incidents by improving their procedures, helping ensure future compliance with environmental requirements.”

The agency said the undertakings can be offered for offences including polluting rivers, breaching permit conditions designed to protect communities, or failing to register and comply with recycling/recovery obligations.