Thames fined £3.3m for untreated sewage pollution and misleading the Environment Agency
Thames Water was fined £3.3m at Lewes Crown Court last week after pleading guilty to polluting the Gatwick Stream and River Mole with untreated sewage in October 2017.
Interim co-chief executive of Thames Water, Cathryn Ross, said the incident occurred when a storm pump operated in error. The failing was compounded by what was described by the judge as a deliberate attempt to mislead the Environment Agency after the incident.
Ross made an unreserved apology:“It should not have happened, and we deeply regret the incident. I would also like to express my sincere apologies for those aspects of our response to the incident six years ago that led to the finding that we misled the regulator. We fully accept that we made significant errors and exercised poor judgment at the time, and we are genuinely sorry for that.”
She said Thames has made voluntary payments totally £1m to three local organisations to help make amends, and said had “undertaken a full evaluation of this unacceptable incident and have learned the lessons”.
Chief executive of the South East Rivers Trust, Bella Davies, said: “There is no excuse for polluting rivers, which are the lifeblood of our landscapes. This incident decimated fish populations on the Gatwick Stream and impacted the ecology of the river far beyond into the catchment of the River Mole. Six years after this pollution incident the river and local angling club are still suffering. We welcome the Thames Water fine while hoping it would have been higher. We are furious to hear the judge’s conclusion that Thames Water attempted to mislead the regulator.”
Last week, campaigner River Action said the "Henley Mile" – the stretch of the River Thames used for the Henley Regatta – was severely impacted by sewage pollution. Together with local residents, it tested water quality every weekday over a four-week period ahead of the annual event for levels of phosphate, nitrate and harmful bacteria. River Action said the water quality posed “serious risk to human health” at certain times, and was consistently “excessively nutrient enriched and in a very poor condition”. River Action presented its Charter for Rivers to politicians last Monday.
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