A water company has been fined a total of £40,211 at Reading Crown Court this month, after admitting polluting a nature reserve on the Hampshire Border. The Chase at Woolton Hill near Newbury, was sealed off in 2006 after leaked effluent polluted a lake and a stream killing thousands of fish. Thames Water admitted the leak came from a burst 35-year old sewage pipeline from a pumping station.
An Environment Agency spokeswoman said the raw sewage caused oxygen levels to drop and ammonia to rise killing thousands of fish, including brook, lamprey, brown trout, bullhead and native crayfish. Alison Love said, "When I first arrived at the stream I was struck by the smell of raw sewage. The Water had turned a cloudy orange colour and the stream bed was covered in slimy sewage fungus. Thousands of fish including some important and rare species were dead or in distress, gasping at the surface of the water. The incident destroyed the ecology in moments."
It has been argued that a company the size of Thames Water should have had an environmental commitment and safeguards in place to prevent this sort of devastating incident. A spokesman for the water company said, "We admitted liability very quickly. As soon as we found out we took action and co-operated with the Environment Agency. Since then our track record has been excellent, all our treatment works are working at 100% compliance."
