The Environment Agency has prosecuted
Southern Water for causing raw sewage to pollute
a stream that killed a large number of fish in
East Grinstead.
Southern Water Services Ltd
appeared at Haywards Heath Magistrates Court on
Friday 2 June 2006 and pleaded guilty to the offence.
The company was fined £9,000 and ordered
to pay £1,190 costs to the Environment Agency.
The Court heard that on 5 September
2005, the Environment Agency received a report
of dead fish seen in Sunnyside Stream at Brooklands
Park, East Grinstead. When an Environment Agency
Officer arrived on site he saw around 100 dead
brown trout on the stretch between Dunnings Road
and Harwood Lane. In places the stream was grey
in colour and smelt of sewage.
Officers from Southern Water
said that the raw sewage had entered a tributary
of the Sunnyside Stream via an overflowing inspection
chamber actually located in the bed of the watercourse,
seepage through the ground and also a surface
water outfall. After investigation it was found
that the sewer system in Brooklands Park had become
blocked due to root intrusion into the sewers
and a consequent build-up of debris.
The Environment Agency Officer
noticed that there was sewage fungus in the stream
and this takes around 48 hours to develop. Final
calculations of fish deaths suggested that the
total was about 466 brown trout, 20 minnows, seven
stoneloach and one stickleback along 1.6 km of
the watercourse.
Commenting on the case, Environment
Agency District Water Quality Officer Iain Barker
said: "The pipework in a sensitive location
and sewage systems near watercourses should receive
special attention. The impact on the stream was
significant and as a result of this incident there
was a large and unnecessary fish kill."
In mitigation Southern Water
entered an early guilty plea and spent £23,000
to fix the sewage system. They also said that
the sewage system under the stream bed was not
constructed by them, but by their predecessors.
At the time of the incident they had no authority
to prevent tree planting near historic sewers,
as it was root intrusion that caused the incident
to occur.
The Court accepted Southern
Water’s early guilty plea and that the incident
was not deliberate. However, the Magistrates appreciated
that the effect was serious and advised Southern
Water regarding the dangers of having a sewer
system located under such a sensitive watercourse.
