Welsh Water is prosecuted 18 times for pollution in just four years

Aug 30 2008 by Ben Glaze, Western Mail

WALES’ biggest water company has been prosecuted 18 times in the last four years for polluting the country’s waterways, the Western Mail has learned.

Since 2005, Welsh Water has been prosecuted for a range of incidents including:

- Killing more than 23,000 fish near a reservoir;

- Polluting a stream near a Blue Flag beach in a National Park, and

- Allowing sewage to enter an estuary on the edge of another National Park.

Last year, Welsh Water was jointly the most prosecuted water company in the UK, according to the Environmental Data Services Report.

But despite the repeated breaches, it has been fined less than £77,000 in total, a sum described last night FRI by Friends of the Earth Cymru as “not good enough”.

FoE director Gordon James said: “If a motorist received a fraction of this number of prosecutions he would, quite rightly, be banned from driving for a long time.

“The fines for water pollution offences should be raised to a level where they would act as a strong deterrent and ensure that companies take appropriate action to prevent the pollution of our rivers and beaches.

“Fines for environmental crimes are too low. They aren’t taken seriously enough.

“The message doesn’t seem to be getting home. These are serious offences and they affect tourism and fishing.

“Tougher penalties would focus the mind on addressing the problems. If they are breaking the law they should be punished.”

The single biggest fine levied on the not-for-profit company was £16,500 for killing more than 23,000 fish in a river near Pontsticill Reservoir, outside Merthyr Tydfil, when three tonnes of aluminium sulphate leaked from a waste chemical storage tank into a three-mile stretch of the Taf Fechan river.

Last September, Aberdare Magistrates’ Court fined Welsh Water for the leak and ordered the company to pay £4,184 costs.

The firm also paid £23,000 to Merthyr Tydfil Angling Association to help replenish stocks.

The Environment Agency’s senior environment officer Jeff Edwards said after the event: “The worst thing is that the pollution and the resulting fish kill could have been avoided. Any site that keeps hazardous chemicals should have measures in place to control any accident or leak.

“Sadly, these preventative measures were lacking at the Pontsticill water treatment works.”

Another offence included letting sewage effluent leak into a stream at Broadhaven, a beauty spot inside Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The incident, at the Haroldston Stream near St Brides Bay Heritage Coast, led to a fine of £500 at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court.

A similar offence at the Glaslyn Estuary, near Harlech, also involved sewage. The firm was again fined £500 by Pwllheli magistrates.

In July 2007, the firm was fined £5,000 after killing 300 trout in a river running through a Wrexham estate.

A year earlier agency workers were alerted to sewage overflowing from a blocked storm drain in dry weather on the town’s Caia Park estate. The sewage leaked into two miles of the River Gwenfro.

In July, the company was one of several bodies who called a special meeting in Llanelli to address the concerns of MPs, AMs, councillors and residents in the town about its sewage infrastructure’s ability to cope with sewage levels.

More than 300 storm sewage spills had overflowed from three of the town’s treatment works, despite guidelines that said total spills from the three should number no more than 30.

Welsh Water’s parent company Glas Cymru was formed in May 2001 to own, finance and manage the company and had a turnover of £623m in the year to March.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “The number of prosecutions of Welsh Water is generally high but fines, which are down to the courts, are low.

“The fines that follow a successful prosecution are an economic penalty to the company but they do not ensure that the problem that caused the incident in the first place is resolved.”

A Welsh Water spokeswoman said: “Over the last decade we have invested over £1bn on upgrading or building new wastewater treatment works right across our region and this has delivered massive environmental benefits for Wales.

“The quality of our river water and coastal bathing water is overall now better than it has ever been.”