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Severn Trent pays out £100,000 for three cases of supplying ‘unfit’ water
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Severn Trent was ordered to pay out more than £100,000 in fines and costs yesterday, after pleading guilty to several water quality charges.

The company admitted to disinfection failures and supplying water unfit for human consumption on three separate occasions between December 2010 and August 2011.

The bulk of the fines, £50,000, were for distributing discoloured and inadequately disinfected water to almost 470,000 consumers in Chesterfield.

A further £16,000 related to problems repairing a burst main, which contaminated supply to around 500 properties in Sandiacre and prompted complaints about cloudy, “eggy” smelling water.

The third event, leading to a £10,000 penalty, concerned a temporary loss of disinfection at Melbourne treatment works that affected the supply of up to 926,000 people. There are “no indications” public health was affected, according to the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s report.

Legal costs and a victim surcharge came to £37,990.

Jeni Colbourne, chief inspector of drinking water, said: “These charges reflect a very poor period of operational performance which the company has now recognised and is taking steps to prevent a recurrence.”

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