Severn Trent has been fined over £2 million for polluting the River Trent near Stoke with huge amounts of raw sewage between November 2019 and February 2020.
The Environment Agency branded the water company’s storm contingency plans as “woefully inadequate”. District judge Kevin Grego ruled at Cannock magistrates court on Monday that the water supplier failed to have in place and implement a proper system of contingency planning.
Severn Trent had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of illegally discharging raw sewage.
The company illegally dumped around 240 million litres of raw sewage into the river from Strongford wastewater treatment works near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, after two of the three screw pumps failed.
A fine of £1,072,000 and £1 million plus costs of £16,476 and a victim’s surcharge of £181 were brought against Severn Trent, as reported by the PA news agency.
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Environment Agency senior environment officer Adam Shipp – who led the investigation – said: “Severn Trent were fortunate that this incident did not cause a catastrophic pollution in the Trent as the river already had high flows when the discharge occurred.
“Our investigation showed that their contingency plans were woefully inadequate, with a major pump being out of action for 52 days prior to the incident.”
“Even though Severn Trent knew Storm Clara and Storm Dennis were about to arrive they did not think to proactively source alternative pumps and get them to site.”
