Anglian fined for ‘reactive’ response to sewage spillage

Anglian Water has been fined £18,000 over its response to equipment failures at a pumping station near Peterborough that resulted in sewage spilling into a nearby river.

The EA said the successive failure of two pumps at the station in Yaxley highlighted the company’s “reactive attitude” to pollution.

The pumping station was already running at a lower capacity due to a sewage pump being out of order when a second pump also failed. The assets were supposed to regulate the flow of effluent and their failures resulted in wastewater entering the Pig Water Drain before an engineer arrived on site.

The EA said at least 60 fish, including roach, pike and eel, were killed as a result of toxic ammonia and reduced oxygen in the water, although the final death is thought to be a lot higher. The agency said Anglian staff seemed “blind” to the ongoing incident, with one employee telling an attending EA technician there was no sewage being spilled into the river.

Louis de Quincey, who led the EA investigation, said: “With only a single pump in operation, this was always likely to increase the chances of an incident. Anglian Water should have sped up its response time as a result. Many hours passed before a technician stopped sewage entering the water.

“Anglian Water could and should have acted quicker.”

A spokesperson for Anglian Water said: “We take our responsibilities to the natural environment very seriously, and deeply regret the incident at one of our pumping stations in Yaxley in 2019.

“We continually monitor our sites through an extensive network of sensors and alarms. This provides a 24/7 view of how our assets are operating and is very effective. However, on this occasion a number of factors combined and one of our pumps didn’t work as it should have done because of an intermittent signal failure on a flow sensor. Our technician responded to the alarm and, once on site quickly stopped the flow, however, there was a spill from the pumping station into the Pig Water Drain and a short section of the Yaxley Lode.  The issue was resolved and the impact was short lived. As the judge noted, the actions taken by the technician on the day helped to minimise any further damage. The control system was rectified within 24 hours of the issue occurring.

“We work hard to protect and enhance the environment and so it is particularly distressing when incidents like this occur. We operate more than 1,100 water recycling centres and a 40,000-mile sewer network across our region. We know there’s no room for complacency, and we’re absolutely determined to improve further and progress towards achieving our zero pollutions goal.”

The company pleaded guilty to breaching permitting regulations and was ordered by a judge at Peterborough magistrates’ court to pay £10,000 costs to the EA as well as the fine.