Wessex Water fined £500k after thousands of fish die from sewage pollution

Wessex Water has been deemed negligent following sewage leaks that resulted in the death of thousands of fish. The company also failed to report these incidents to the Environment Agency as promptly as required.

Swindon Magistrates’ Court today (Monday, November 11) handed down a total fine of £500,000 to the company after it pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges related to the Bowerhill Lodge sewage pumping station in Melksham, Wiltshire, and one charge linked to a burst sewer main at the Wick St Lawrence sewage treatment works near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. In addition to the fine, the company was ordered to pay costs of £60,000, plus applicable VAT, and a victim surcharge of £170.

The two charges at Bowerhill Lodge involved causing storm water to discharge into the Clackers Brook between late March and early April 2018 and discharging screened sewage from late July to early August 2018. The third charge pertained to causing untreated sewage effluent to discharge into marsh rhynes (a type of manmade drainage channel) from a rising main leading into the Wick St Lawrence works.

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In a case brought by the Environment Agency, it was revealed in court that over 2,100 fish perished in Clackers Brook, a tributary of the River Avon, due to a discharge at Bowerhill Lodge. The deceased included eels, lamprey and bullheads, three species listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Virtually all fish within a 1km stretch were wiped out. The discharge, which lasted for 54.5 hours, was caused by a mechanical failure and resulted in sewage flowing through a nature conservation area.

The company failed to immediately report this to the Environment Agency. Investigations discovered that the sewage pumping station’s alarm and telemetry system failures, along with a power cable getting entangled in pump equipment, contributed to the disaster.

Further probes revealed that there had been previous discharges from Bowerhill Lodge Pumping Station earlier in the year that Wessex Water had not reported to the Environment Agency. At Wick St Lawrence, a significant portion of the local rhyne was contaminated with sewage, causing fish, including spined stickleback and eels, to die after a rising main (a pipe through which sewage is pumped under pressure) burst.

Wessex Water had previously identified the rising main as critical and needing monitoring. However, the monitoring was not implemented until after the incident.

An investigation revealed that a document submitted by the company to Ofwat in September 2018 indicated a significant rise in the number of rising main bursts over recent years, with figures running at approximately 70-80 per year. The company's ageing rising mains are increasingly prone to bursting, and it was estimated that replacements would need to occur at nine times the current rate for stability.

Out of 28 serious pollution incidents caused by Wessex Water between 2015 and 2023, six were due to rising mains, making up 21 per cent of serious incidents in that timeframe.

District Judge Joanna Dickens criticised the company for not reporting discharges at Bowerhill Lodge, stating it "undermines the regulatory regime". However, she acknowledged that Wessex Water had taken "considerable and expensive steps" since then to address the issue. She also mentioned that after the incident at Wick St Lawrence, flow pressure monitoring equipment was installed, preventing any recurrence of similar incidents.

The Judge pointed out that although there was no lasting environmental damage in this instance. She said: It was negligent because of the failures at this specific location and the failure to install monitoring equipment at an earlier time."

Following the hearing, Environment Agency Senior Environment Officer Janine Maclean said: "These cases are further examples of a water company breaking the law and causing serious pollution. It was very sad the pollutions had such serious impacts - killing fish and other aquatic life."

“Wessex Water’s rising mains are ageing and becoming vulnerable to bursting and are an area of increasing concern to the Environment Agency, presenting risk to people and the environment. We recognise the company is increasing its monitoring of rising mains, which is a positive step forward, but monitoring is still reliant on failure, and we would like to see the company significantly increase the level of investment it makes to proactively replace rising mains before they fail.

“We expect all water companies to manage and maintain their sewage pumping stations and rising mains in a responsible and sustainable manner to ensure they do not cause pollution. We hope these cases send a clear signal to shareholders and water company board rooms, up and down the country, that investing in resilient sewage systems to prevent pollution, and ensure compliance, must be an essential way of doing business.

“Our dedicated officers are increasing our regulatory inspections of Wessex Water’s sewage pumping stations and we will also be attending more incidents, including those arising from rising mains, with the new resources we are gaining to transform the way we regulate the water industry”

A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “These incidents six years ago were caused by a burst sewerage pipe and a mechanical issue that both sadly resulted in fish dying. This shouldn't have happened and we're sorry.

“Once the problems were identified, we quickly took action to minimise environmental harm and carried out emergency repairs. Since these incidents took place, we have invested in AI technology to detect where potential issues on our network might occur to further protect the environment.

“We’re planning a step change in the maintenance of our sewerage network and, if approved by our regulators, are proposing to spend £300m in this area by 2030.”