South West Water has appeared in court in two separate cases brought by the Environment Agency which cost the water company more than £80,000 in fines and costs for equipment failures at its Milford Park sewage pumping station and at its Dunkeswell sewage treatment plant in East Devon.

South West Water was fined for breaching environmental controls at the treatment plant at Dunkeswell, near Honiton, which was already scheduled for improvement works when discharges breached agreed limits between May 2013 and May 2014.

There had been 5 occasions when waste that entered the stream exceeded the limits for pollution set in the permit. Concern had also been expressed on a number of occasions about the condition of the site and planned site visits were missed.

The court took into account the frequent number of visits the company paid to the site, and the steps that had been taken to rectify problems.

South West Water admitted breaching the agreed discharge limits at an earlier hearing in Exeter Crown Court.

They were fined £45,000 with costs of £5,700 and a £240 victim surcharge by Judge Phillip Wassall at a second hearing at Taunton Crown Court.

Mischka Hewins for the Environment Agency said:

There were on-going problems with sludge rising in the settlement tank, which were specifically raised on over 19 occasions and led to knock on problems with the filters. The inlet screen, which is of fundamental importance to the site, was also not working.”

“South West Water should have seen that problems were leading to the likelihood of breaches of permit and done more to prevent it.”

The court heard the plant had been identified as in need of improvement in 2007 and by 2013 was due for investment under South West Water’s Glidepath programme.

A growth in population in the area it served put increased pressure on the Dunkeswell site and most of the problems could be traced to a failure of the screening device at its inlet. This had led to a build-up of too much sludge for the filter system which had to be repeatedly cleared by South West Water.

Penstock valve failure at pumping station led to sewage spill

On 27 June 2013, the pumping station at Milford Park became partially blocked when a penstock valve broke and fell into the 30 per cent shut position.

Sewage accumulated in the pumping station and in the surrounding sewers until it spilled from 3 locations – the rugby club combined sewage outflow which leads into the Bitton Brook for 18 hours, from Milford Park into the Teign Estuary for 16 hours and also a manhole adjacent to the rugby club.

Starting at 8.50pm, alarms and signals were transmitted from Milford Park pumping station to South West Water’s control centre, warning of the problems . The court heard that there had been an hour and a half delay on South West Water’s part in responding to the alarms.

Richard Fisher for the Environment Agency said:

“South West Water had already recorded the site as at risk after a large rag ball had been trapped in the pumping station. The company had arranged for the rag ball to be removed on 4 July. This made the problems experienced on 27 June worse but did not cause them. The sewage spill affected the nearby beaches at Teignmouth with 2 bathing water beaches failing the water quality testing standards on the day.”

The court heard that South West Water had now improved the works at the Milford Park pumping station. The water company was fined £28,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £3,935.