South West Water to pay £142,524 for Devon and Cornwall breaches

Environment Agency: Illegal discharges at sewage treatment works in Denbury and Praze an Beeble broke permit conditions.   South West Water Ltd has been ordered to pay more than £142,000 in fines and costs for discharging poor quality effluent from two of its sewage treatment plants. The prosecutions were brought by the Environment Agency. The offences were committed in Denbury, Devon and Praze an Beeble near Camborne, Cornwall where the company breached permit conditions by allowing inadequately treated effluent to enter nearby watercourses. Strict limits are set on effluent discharged from sewage treatment works to ensure they don’t adversely affect receiving watercourses. It is the responsibility of the site operator to ensure a treatment works operates in accordance with its permit. They must carry out regular maintenance and repairs. 

The Environment Agency is introducing special measures for South West Water until it better protects the environment.  It comes after the firm came significantly below its targets for pollution incidents, the EA said.  The supplier must improve its performance according to a “Water and sewerage companies’ performance” report. The EA says that last year the company was responsible for 115 major pollution incidents (including serious sewage leaks) – the next highest number from a supplier was 46 …