Thames Water has been fined £3.3 million by the Environment Agency after millions of litres of raw sewage flooded two rivers near Gatwick.
The untreated waste, which flowed into the rivers after equipment failed in 2017, killed several thousand fish.
A pump at the company’s sewage works in Crawley was activated in error, which led to a storm lagoon discharging sewage and rainwater into the Mole, despite there being no significant rainfall.
While investigators found almost 1,400 dead fish in Gatwick Stream and the river Mole, the court heard this was just a fraction of the number of fish killed. Species that were killed include barbel, bream, chub, gudgeon, perch, pike and roach.
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Presiding over the case, Judge Laing also heard that in the days following the incident Thames Water said its infrastructure had nothing to do with the pollution, but later pleaded guilty to four breaches of environmental law.
Environment Agency senior environment officer Jamie Llloyd, who led the investigation, said Thames Water had “missed several opportunities” to prevent the pollution from occurring.
“Staff appear to have been oblivious to malfunctions at the sewage treatment works leading up to it and did nothing to intervene. When the alarm was raised not one decisive action was taken until the damage was done,” he said.
“Thames Water failed to take responsibility for the incident until several years later – and didn’t provide vital information when requested by the Environment Agency during our investigation.”
“We brought this case due to the major environmental impact caused, and because it was entirely avoidable. Thames Water failed to have adequate systems in place to manage the pollution-risk from their site and didn’t respond to alarms.”
This comes as the water company attempts to deal with financial issues in the aftermath of its former CEO resigning, after a litany of similar sewage scandals.
