12-Jun-2006
- The Environment Agency has prosecuted Southern
Water for causing sewage to repeatedly pollute
a stream at Hickstead Showground in August 2005.
Southern Water appeared at Haywards
Heath Magistrates Court on Friday 9 June 2006.
The company pleaded guilty and was fined £5,500
and ordered to pay costs of £2,576 to the
Environment Agency.
The Court heard that in the
afternoon of 14 August 2005, the Environment Agency
received a report of dead fish in Herring Stream
at Hickstead Showground. Environment Agency officers
visited the site, saw 30 dead fish and then traced
the source of the pollution up the Pook Bourne
Stream (a tributary of Herring Stream) to the
Malthouse Lane Sewage Pumping Station.
At the pumping station there
was recent evidence of sewage discharge from the
storm overflow hatch and officers witnessed four
discharges of sewage take place over an hour whilst
on site. This was despite the fact that the weather
was dry and the storm overflow should not be operating.
Following the first of these discharges, the Environment
Agency notified Southern Water that there was
a problem on site.
According to Southern Water
records, there were 68 separate discharges of
sewage to the stream between the afternoon of
13 August 2005 to the evening of 14 August 2005
when the system was finally corrected.
Samples taken from the sewage
outfall showed that the discharge was almost the
strength of raw sewage and ammonia levels recorded
were five times a fatal dose for fish. On 15 August
2005, the Environment Agency did an ecological
appraisal of the stream that demonstrated the
pollution had a significant impact on river life
and also 39 fish died as a result of the incidents.
When interviewed in September
2005, a Southern Water representative explained
there had been three major failures at the Malthouse
Lane pumping station involving the warning system
alarms and the primary and secondary pumps.
The three faults that developed
at the pumping station would not have lead to
such a major pollution incident individually,
but cumulatively resulted in a total failure of
the warning systems put in place to prevent the
escape of pollution.
Commenting on the case, Area
Environment Officer Steve Usher said: "Southern
Water had two warning systems in place at this
pumping station, designed to alert them to the
fact that something was wrong with the pumps.
The failure of not one but both of these systems
meant that the overflow of untreated sewage to
the stream went unnoticed for over 24 hours. As
a result, the ecology of the stream was severely
affected and fish were killed up to 5 km downstream."
"This incident highlights
the need to ensure that sewage pumping stations
- and associated emergency warning systems - are
regularly maintained to prevent pollution of the
environment."
In mitigation Southern Water
said it was an unfortunate incident and it was
treated extremely seriously. Southern Water also
said they responded promptly and fully co-operated
with the Environment Agency in dealing with it.
To prevent a further occurrence there are now
monthly maintenance procedures in place and the
company has also spent £92,000 to remedy
the problems on site, with more money allocated
for further works.
The Magistrates took in account
Southern Water’s early guilty plea, their prompt
action in dealing with the incident and their
co-operation with the Environment Agency. They
were also satisfied that Southern Water had taken
measures to fix the problems on site.
Lucy Harding
