GovWire

Environment Agency officers were called to Bourn Brook at Caldecott in Cambridgeshire in September 2019 after sewage pumped out of the sewer. The incident took place close to the Bourn Water Recycling Centre which is owned and operated by Anglian Water.

On September 10, 2019, Anglian Water were notified by a member of the public that sewage was overflowing. The sewage was going onto a bridleway and into a ditch which was a tributary of the Bourn Brook.

The water company reported the incident to the Environment Agency. Officers visited the scene and took samples from the water after it was found that sewage from the sewer had begun to enter nearby Bourn Brook.

Officers found ammonia and low oxygen levels in the water, posing a potential risk to wildlife at the site. Despite efforts from Anglian Water to stop the polluted water from spreading, its methods proved insufficient. In total 4 kilometres of the watercourse was affected for at least 5 days.

Since 2004 the sewer, which is only 1.5 kilometres long, had burst 6 times. The court found that Anglian Water had been too slow in putting in place potential mitigation measures. They only located air valves, designed to reduce stress on the sewer, after the incident took place. These valves had been in place for at least 25 years.

Jeremy Hay, Senior Environment Officer, for the Environment Agency said:

Anglian Water should have done more to prevent this sewer from bursting in the first place.

Sewage pollution can be devastating to human health, local biodiversity and our environment.

Companies must invest in their infrastructure to avoid pollution such as this.

Members of the public with concerns about pollution should call our incident hotline on 0800 807060.

Anglian Water appeared at Cambridge Magistrates Court on October 12. It was charged with causing poisonous, noxious, or polluting matter to enter inland freshwaters without an environmental permit. This is contrary to regulations 12(1)(b) and 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

In sentencing, District Judge Ken Sheraton found that there had been no effective surveys of the pipe in question. He went on to say that had there been surveys, the 2 air valves would have been noticed.

The water company pleaded guilty to the offence and were fined 350,000 and told to pay 28,025.66 in costs as well as a victim surcharge of 181.

Notes to editor

• The Environment Agency has significantly driven up monitoring and transparency from water companies in recent years, so that everyone can see what is going on. This includes:
  • Event Duration Monitoring: This measures how often and for how long storm overflows are used. The Environment Agency has increased the number of overflows monitored across the network from 800 in 2016 to more than 12,700 in 2021, the equivalent of almost 9 in 10 storm overflows now with monitoring devices.
  • All 15,000 overflows will have them by the end of 2023. All the data is published online. More info on EDM here.
  • Flow-to-full treatment: Environment Agency has also asked companies to install new flow monitors on more than 2,000 wastewater treatment works to identify what is happening at those works during the sewage treatment process itself. This has led to a major investigation, announced in November 2021, with the Environment Agency requesting more detailed data from all wastewater treatment works.
  • Storm Overflows Taskforce: Through the work of the Storm Overflows Taskforce made up of Defra, the Environment Agency, Ofwat, Consumer Council for Water, Blueprint for Water and Water UK water companies have agreed to increase transparency around when and how storm overflows are used:
  • Make real-time data on sewage discharges available at bathing sites all year round.
  • Publish annual monitoring data on their websites so that progress in reducing their use can be tracked. The Environment Agency will compile this data into an annual report that is easily accessible to the public. This data is also being used at an operational level to prioritise the most frequent spills for further assessment by Environment Agency officers.
  • The Environment Agency has taken tough action against those companies which are breaking the rules:
  • In 2021 the Environment Agency concluded seven prosecutions against water and sewerage companies with fines of 90 million, 2 of 4 million, 2.3 million, 1.5 million, 150,000, and 540,000. There have been 6 prosecutions already concluded in 2022 with fines of 1,600,750, 300,000, 240,000, 233,000, 50,000, and 18,000, and more prosecutions are progressing in court.
  • The Environment Agency has launched amajor investigationinto possible unauthorised spills at thousands of sewage treatment works.
  • We will always seek to hold those responsible for environmental harm to
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