Southern Water fined just 0.117% of profits for pouring raw sewage into river
Southern Water was today fined the equivalent of just 0.117 per cent of its yearly profit despite killing more than 2,000 fish in a huge sewage spill.
Staff ignored an alarm going off for five hours leading to untreated waste illegally flowed into into Shawford Lake Stream, Waltham Chase, Hampshire, for up to 19 hours after a pump failed. A court heard ammonia levels 32 times higher than permitted were discharged into a 1.5 mile stretch (2.4km) of the stream after it poured out from two manholes.
But Southern Water was fined £330,000 - just 0.117 per cent of its annual profit for the year ending March 2023, approximately £284,951,000. The Mirror saw the water firm's annual financial report detailing its takings last year.
Sitting at Southampton Magistrates' Court, District Judge Nicholas Wattam categorised the culpability as "negligent". He said: "It is a fact that the overloading of the pump in this offence was set too low which caused it to fail. The local ecology was significantly affected and over 2,000 fish were killed. Thousands of fish were killed, albeit relatively localised this cannot be categorised as a minor incident. Rather, I'm sure there has been a significant adverse and toxic affects on animal health at that location."
Water turned cloudy and wildlife died after the spill (PA)Despite a warning signal sounding in the water company's control room just after 7am on July 21, 2019, a team wasn't dispatched to try to fix the problem until lunch time.
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The "lethal" levels of the chemical led to 'fish kill' of 1,871 bullhead, more than 100 brown trout, Brook lampreys and stickleback. YMCA Faithorne Manor - a nearby outdoor activity centre across a 94-acre site which is popular for school trips - also had to stop water activities for 10 days after the incident and cancel more than 1,000 sessions.
Following the spill, the Environment Agency (EA) investigated Southern Water's Little Bull pumping station which was responsible. After admitting one breach of the Environmental Permitting Regulations regarding the pollution and operation of their station, the company was fined.
The judge said the large fine should highlight 'the need to improve regulatory compliance'. Prosecutor Rebecca Vanstone told the court: "At approximately 11:48am on July 21, 2019, a member of the public reported to the agency there was a burst sewer and unfiltered sewage was entering the stream.
"The sewage had become blocked from a manhole and travelled across the ground, entering the stream. The defendant company was notified at the same time as the Environment Agency. Upon receiving that call, it says it dispatched a crew and told the agency. But Southern Water should have been notified much earlier that there had been an issue with the pump." The court heard an alarm in the control room had gone off at 7.18am - but nothing was done about it.
"It went unanswered and it was almost five hours after that that action was then taken. Southern Water simply say they don't know why," she added.
The court heard an officer attended the site later that afternoon two hours after the report was made, where a 'clear route' of the discharge running from the manhole to the stream was found.
An area of 'discoloured ground' was discovered, as well as another manhole found five metres from the water, with more evidence of water flowing from it as well. Ms Vanstone said: "The officer drove downstream, where water was cloudy, there was an odour and multiple dead fish were found. 140 metres downstream a further 54 dead fish and no live fish were observed."
The court heard YMCA Fairthorne Manor had 1,010 water activities which needed to be 'substituted' as a result of the discharge. Shawford Lake Stream was closed from water activities whilst waiting for water sample results for 10 days from July 21 to July 31.
An investigation by the EA found the sewage was running for a minimum of five hours, but could have been as long as 19 hours.
Regarding Southern Water's explanation that the discharge was caused by pump setting failure by third party contractor, Ms Vanstone said the company had a 'history' of similar failures.
"There is a major adverse affect. Discharge of sewage to waters has clear environmental harm." she said. She said there was a "long lasting effect" on animal health. "There was a total fish kill of over 2,000 fish," she continued. This 'severe' kill consisted of 1,871 bullhead and five Brook lampreys - both of which are protected species.
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There were also stickleback recovered as well over 100 brown trout along the affected 2.4km stretch of water, in which the invertebrate community were also 'adversely affected'.
Thousands of fish died in the water as a result of the spill (PA)The court heard the levels of ammonia - which is lethal to fish - in the watercourse was found to be 32 higher than the permitted amount. Ms Vanstone added that the trout population has 'failed to recover' from the incident. "An offending of this nature means a loss of public confidence," she said. "The public have an expectation water companies are working in accordance with that regime."
Regarding Southern Water's previous convictions, she said they 'painted a picture of a poor compliance record'. For Southern Water, Dominic Kay KC said: "Very, very significant changes to this company have been made since this incident.
"The company wishes to express its genuine remorse at the outset. This was something of a freak incident. An investigation from Southern Water found the specialist sub-contractor had reset the replacement pump's overload too low.
"This isn't a case where Southern Water is trying to blame its third party contractors, but at the same time it is a failure of a third party contractor which is the root cause of a problem."
He admitted the pump issue was 'compounded' by a failure to respond to the alarm in their control room. Mr Kay KC relayed a message from Southern Water's CEO, Lawrence Gosden, that he was 'profoundly sorry' for the offence and was 'dedicated to turning things around'. The court heard Southern Water had voluntarily paid compensation to YMCA Faithorne Manor for the impact the incident had.
District Judge Wattam said the company's previous convictions were 'significant and relevant'. He added: "A fine should have a real economic impact and bring home to both management and shareholders the need to improve regulatory compliance."
In addition to the £330,000 fine, the judge ordered them to pay EA's legal costs of £18,764 as well as a £181 victim surcharge.
The water company has been under-fire for years for failures in its water supply, filtration system and raw sewage spills across the South.
In 2021, Southern Water was sentenced to pay a record £90m in fines for widespread pollution after pleading guilty to 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges across rivers and coastal waters in Kent, Hampshire and Sussex. It was also fined £200,000 in 2013 at Canterbury Crown Court, before being fined a further £2million in 2016.
Richard Manning, General Counsel and Company Secretary for Southern Water said: "We are very sorry that this unacceptable historical incident in 2019 led to environmental damage.
"As soon as we became aware of this event, we took action to reduce its impact on the local area, and have since co-operated fully with the Environment Agency’s investigation, pleading guilty at the first opportunity.
"In acknowledgement of our role, we have already compensated the YMCA and set up a £140,000 grant scheme with the Groundwork South Trust to aid habitat improvement.
"Learning from this incident also led to a comprehensive review of our more than 3,000 unmanned pumping stations to ensure those at highest risk were fit for purpose, leading to a rolling programme of improvements to equipment and monitoring technology which has already cost more than £13 million.
"We have learnt from this incident and welcome the judge's comments that the company has made good progress in its turnaround plan since 2019 and more recently.
"Five years on from this event we have a new leadership team, new shareholders and we are spending £3bn - the equivalent to £1,500 per household - between 2020 and 2025 to improve performance."
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