South West Water fined more than £2m on 13 counts

South West Water (SWW) has been fined more than £2.15m for 13 environmental offences across Devon and Cornwall spanning a period of four years. The water company was ordered to pay £280,000 costs and £170 victim surcharge.

At Plymouth Magistrates’ Court, District Judge Matson sentenced the company on six charges for illegal water discharge activities and for seven offences of contravening environmental permit conditions.The Environment Agency said the fine was the largest ever imposed for environmental offences in the region.

The court heard that each of the offences demonstrated that SWW had numerous common deficiencies in its implementation of management systems.

The offences took place between July 2016 and August 2020 at Lostwithiel, Kilmington, Crediton and Torpoint sewage treatment works and the Watergate Bay sewage pumping station.

Inaccurate and inadequate operational procedures led to harmful chemicals escaping from SWW sites on more than one occasion which resulted in significant environmental damage, at sites including Kilmington on the River Axe where thousands of fish, including protected species, died and at Crediton on the River Creedy.

Similar failure by SWW to operate its assets and processes in an effective manner was shown at Lostwithiel in July 2016, where raw sewage was pumped into the River Fowey for more than 12 hours while control room alarms sounded.

Also in 2016, SWW failed to respond adequately to alarms causing an illegal discharge from its Watergate Bay sewage pumping station. The discharge lasted for more than 35 hours.

On two occasions, effluent from SWW’s Torpoint sewage treatment works was pumped into St John’s Lake – a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The lake also lies within the Plymouth Sounds and Estuaries Special Area of Conservation and is designated due to its variety of bird life and invertebrates.