This month Severn Trent Water Limited was sentenced for discharging thousands of gallons of raw sewage from its sewer network onto land at Sutton Park, West Midlands.
The Company has been fined £500,000, ordered to pay prosecution costs of £50,693, and a victim surcharge of £120.
The incident occurred due to a blockage in the Company's sewer system within Sutton Park.
In November 2013 the Sutton Park Visitor Centre received a report of a sewage smell and that a sewer was discharging into the Longmoor Valley. Due to poor light, the location of the incident was not identified until a park ranger identified a large amount of sewage flowing from a manhole cover, spreading across the surrounding area, the next day.
Officers from Natural England attended and mapped the extent of the damage. They found that the sewage had spread across an area of 1.15 hectares. Sewage had also entered a nearby ditch and travelled 700 metres into the Longmoor Brook to the Longmoor Pool within the Park.
Severn Trent Water Ltd liaised with Natural England, the Environment Agency, Birmingham City Council and Historic England to produce a plan to remediate the site. Soil and plants had to be scraped up across the affected area to stop the spread of sewage contamination. Around 0.65 hectares of rare and sensitive plants were destroyed. Representatives from Natural England expressed concern with the progress and efficiency of the clean-up operation, which concluded in May 2014.
The Judge recognised that Sutton Park is an environmentally sensitive area, and a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. The Judge noted that the clean-up operation had been slow and poorly managed, but that the Company had ultimately taken all necessary steps to remediate the site and that it had made a long term commitment to restoring the affected area.
In mitigation, the Court noted the Company's overall environmental record and set of values, that the Company had accepted responsibility for the incident, and that it was not a commercially motivated offence.
The Environment Agency recognised an improvement in Severn Trent Water Limited's overall environmental compliance since the incident, and as an industry leading company in the Environment Performance Assessment in 2017.
Emma Johnson, Natural England's Area Manager for the West Midlands noted that the incident "is among the worst damage to a SSSI that Natural England have witnessed". She noted that Natural England have worked closely with the Environment Agency and Severn Trent to rectify the issues and hopes to do so in the future to prevent future spills.
Marc Lidderth, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency stated, "this case demonstrates how partners work together to share information and advice to protect the environment. It also highlights the importance of reporting environmental damage or pollution quickly, and members of the public can do this by calling the Environment Agency Incident Hotline on 0800 807660".
