£20m fine after water giant f loods Thames with sewage
ONE of the country’s largest water firms has been fined a record £20 million for dumping 1.4 billion litres of sewage into the Thames.
A judge told Thames Water that just because it took its name from the river, it ‘does not make it your property to poison and pollute’.
The spillage led to a toxic tide of tampons, condoms and sanitary towels floating down the river on several occasions – making people and livestock ill.
Hundreds of fish, ducks, swans and geese were killed. A wedding reception was cancelled because of the smell, and a crayfish company was put out of business during repeated incidents in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire between 2012 and 2014.
A farmer had to fence off his cattle from the nearest water supply after they were struck down with tapeworm, and a nine-year- old boy suffered a severe stomach bug after attending a sailing course.
Members of the public reported ‘black clouds’ of sewage entering the river from storm pipes after ‘out-of-control’ sewage treatment centres owned by Thames Water sent untreated water into rivers.
The firm admitted 13 breaches of environmental laws over discharges from sewage treatment works in Aylesbury, Didcot, Henley and Little Marlow, and a pumping station at Littlemore.
The fine is ten times more than the previous largest fine, but still amounts to only about two weeks’ profits for the privatised utility.
At Aylesbury sewage works , one entry in a logbook branded the lack of action a ‘failure waiting to happen’ after it emerged management did nothing to resolve ongoing problems of sewage discharge into the river. A worker wrote ‘I resign’ in the logbook after repeated failures by management to take action. Sailesh Mehta, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said levels of ammonia described as ‘devastating to life’ were detected during tests on the river at a Thames Water site at Henley-on-Thames. A dog walker also saw the river teeming with dead ducks, swans and geese in the autumn of 2012, while a wedding reception was ruined due to the smell from the river, the court heard. In Didcot in April 2013, a cyclist reported seeing river water covered with tampons, sanitary towels and nappies.
Mr Mehta said: ‘A member of the public cycling from Appleford saw a black cloud of water entering the river which contained the usual contents.’
Mr Mehta said of Aylesbury sewage works: ‘Effectively it wasn’t a functional sewage treatment works. One in three inlet screens were working, aeration lines were full of vegetation and storm tanks were full that day, even though it wasn’t raining.’
The case is the second largest investigation in the Environment Agency’s history, behind only a major fire at Buncefield oil depot in Hertfordshire.
The largest fine previously handed out to a water company came last December, when Southern Water was forced to pay £2 million for flooding beaches in Margate with raw sewage.
Ordering Thames Water to pay £20,361,140 at a sentencing hearing at Aylesbury Crown Court yes- terday, Judge Francis Sheridan criticised the company for presiding over a ‘shocking and disgraceful state of affairs’.
He added: ‘It should not be cheaper to offend than to take appropriate precautions.’
He also said of the firm: ‘There is a history of non-compliance.’
Thames Water, which has a £2 billion turnover – was fined a total of £1.4 million for two similar incidents last year.
Richard Aylard, director of external affairs at Thames Water, and a former private secretary to Prince Charles, said outside the court: ‘We have failed in our responsibility to the environment and that hurts both personally and professionally, because we do care.
‘We’ve also failed in our responsibility to our customers, who pay us to provide an essential public service all the time, every day and not just some of the time, and we apologise for all of those failings.’
He insisted customers will not face increased prices, adding: ‘This fine will be paid in full by shareholders only.’
Judge Sheridan said the public also bore some responsibility – and should take more care rather than treating their toilet as a ‘dump’ for sanitary towels, condoms and nappies.
‘A black cloud of water’