Water wasn’t suitable to drink
UNITED Utilities has been fined £200,000 for supplying water which was not suitable to drink to thousands of households.
Charges of supplying ‘inadequately disinfected water’ were brought against the company by the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which said after the case there were ‘serious failures’ on the part of United Utilities to ‘maintain control of water treatment processes.’
The action related to the Sweetloves water treatment works in north Bolton and two events, between March 31 and April 3 2015 and July 19 and July 22, 2015.
United Utilities said it had paid out £1.5m to affected customers in compensation as a result after advising them to buy bottled water or boil tap water before drinking or using it for food prepartion.
Marcus Rink, Chief Inspector of Drinking Water, said: “These were serious failures by the company to maintain control of water treatment processes, which have been duly recognised by the court.”
At the time of both events, the works supplied just under 80,000 people.
The area affected was to the north and east of Bolton, approximately from Middlebook to Egerton, and around the A58 road.
The Inspectorate said the situation arose due to ‘failures’ of sample pumps serving monitoring equipment critical for controlling water treatment processes.
It said nearly 18,000 properties were left without water for almost 24 hours on July 20, 2015, then had to boil water for drinking or food preparation until the afternoon of July 23. There were no cases of ill health attributed to the two incidents.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate checks water companies in England and Wales supply drinking water that does not put consumers at risk. It is a criminal offence to supply water that is not adequately disinfected.
United Utilities pleaded guilty at Bolton Crown Court in January to supplying inadequately disinfected water and was sentenced on Tuesday in a hearing at the same court. The company was fined £50,000 for the first event and £150,000 for the second, with costs of £54,000 also ordered.
The Inspectorate also hit out at the time it took to restore water treatment processes at Sweetloves to an ‘acceptable standard’ after the second event
Martin Padley, director of water and scientific services at United Utilities, apologised and said more than £150m has been invested in new treatment processes and staff training.
He said: “We take our responsibility to supply safe drinking water very seriously.
“We have invested more than £150 million on new technology and processes including a fail-safe system at Sweetloves treatment works, to make sure this type of event does not happen again, and customers can have complete confidence in their tap water.”