Yorkshire Water has been fined £350,000 after one of its sewage pumping stations polluted a York watercourse.
Following an investigation by the Environment Agency, the company appeared at York Magistrates' Court on Friday, 30 May for sentencing for two offences:
It had previously pleaded guilty to the two offences in November 2024.
The court heard that Yorkshire Water was aware that Fossbridge Sewage Pumping Station's backup pump had not been working for five months.
It had failed to repair it, despite the issue having been noted repeatedly during regular maintenance checks. It should have been fixed within 24 hours.
Yorkshire Water "failed to take action"
Martin Christmas, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency in Yorkshire, said: "Water companies have a responsibility to ensure their assets are maintained and in working order to protect the environment".
"Yorkshire Water failed to take action despite being aware of the risks posed by one of its pumps being out of action, which led to a sewage spill".
"We expect full compliance and are committed to taking robust enforcement action where we see serious breaches".
"Alongside increased inspections at sewage treatment works, additional enforcement tools and better reporting we’re determined to hold water companies to account".
Sewage pumping stations pump sewage through the system to sewage treatment works. It is illegal, unless authorised by an environmental permit, to discharge pollution into watercourses.
Under the environmental permit for Fossbridge Sewage Pumping Station, such a discharge is only allowed in an emergency, such as an electrical or mechanical failure or a blockage, which, if it occurs, must be remedied without delay.
Fossbridge pumping station has a main pump and a backup pump. There is an emergency overflow pipe which discharges sewage into the River Foss if the station fails, to avoid nearby homes connected to the system from being inundated.
Sensors enable Yorkshire Water to monitor the station's performance, including:
Backup pump was blocked
On 5 October 2017, Yorkshire Water noted that the inlet pipe feeding the backup pump was blocked and effluent couldn't reach it, meaning the pump could not operate.
Although a job was raised to fix the blockage, and it was noted it needed repairs during several subsequent regular maintenance visits, it wasn't carried out.
Comments from Yorkshire Water during the interview said the repair of the backup pump was to be done by an external contractor, but had "got lost in the ether".
On 12 March 2018, the sewage pumping station filled to the point where telemetry alarms sounded indicating a discharge of sewage into Foss Dyke. The alarms were noted at Yorkshire Water's control centre and attributed to high rainfall.
High rainfall was not a valid reason as the sewage pumping station was only allowed to discharge in an emergency as set out in its environmental permit and not, as with some water company assets like combined sewer overflows, in "storm conditions".
Yorkshire Water did not attend the pumping station, despite the data indicating a sewage spill.
Report of discharge of sewage
On 14 March, Yorkshire Water received a report from the public about a discharge of sewage from the Fossbridge pumping station.
It was found that the main pump was running but on "low amps", which indicates a potential air lock, and the backup was still not repaired. Yorkshire Water had no functioning pumps at the pumping station.
The company stopped the discharge and arranged for tankers to transport the sewage away from the pumping station while it was repaired. Reports suggest the pumping station had been discharging intermittently into the watercourse on 12 March 2018.
Over the following days, two further discharges took place at the pumping station, one because only one tanker was being used to transport sewage from the pumping station and it had not been able to keep up with the flow, and another after the main pump blocked again.
Water samples showed high ammonia levels in the watercourse. The backup pump was subsequently repaired following the incident.
Yorkshire was ordered to pay costs of £14,028.65 and a victim surcharge of £170.
