Southern Water has been fined £7.1 million after repeated illegal sewage pollution incidents forced the closure of beaches, harmed coastal communities, with serious failures were exposed in the company’s management of wastewater.

Sentencing Southern Water at Canterbury Crown Court on 17, Mr Justice Johnson KC heard how preventable equipment failures and poor operational oversight led to repeated discharges of untreated sewage between 2019 and 2021, some at the height of summer.

The Environment Agency said the prosecution comes almost exactly five years after Southern Water received a record £90 million fine for nearly 7,000 illegal sewage discharges.

Across five major pollution incidents, Southern Water repeatedly failed to maintain critical pumping equipment, delayed reporting pollution to regulators and allowed untreated sewage to enter coastal waters.

In July 2019, an Environment Agency investigation found that around 10m litres of sewage was discharged for almost 24 hours. It could have been prevented but staff showed a lack of system knowledge.

Southern Water is legally obliged to report pollution to the Environment Agency as soon as possible, but they failed to do so until the next day, meaning Thanet District Council could not warn people against getting into the water.

More discharges one year later

Little over a year later around the August bank holiday in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic another illegal discharge was reported.

A failed pump at Margate pumping station was out of order for weeks, leading to the release of sewage into the sea and a second pump then failed. At least 16m litres of sewage were released into the sea across two days. The Environment Agency said that as in the previous incident, it was only told by Southern Water about the pollution a day later.

On the same August day six years ago, untreated wastewater and human waste was also discharged into seawater from a pumping station at Broadstairs, in the region of 1.6m to 3.2m litres, for more than two hours. Southern Water only told the Environment Agency weeks later. Their failure to report it sooner meant Thanet District Council was again unable to warn the public.

Lindsay Faulkner, environment manager for the Environment Agency in Kent, said:

“Southern Water allowed this repeated pollution to happen. Stronger oversight by the company is needed, and plain to see from their track record. These preventable incidents harmed the environment and local communities, but like so much pollution caused by water companies, they were avoidable and should never have happened.

“The Environment Agency demands much more from Southern Water. Our inspections of sewage treatment sites, including pumping stations at fault in this case, will continue. We are holding them to account.”

February 2021 saw another pumping station fault and more pollution when a computer broke down at Broadstairs, as did a back-up. This time, the Environment Agency was told about sewage and debris off the coast, and both they and the council gave advice to swimmers to stay away from a 5km-stretch of Kent coastline for 24 hours.

The Environment Agency told the court Southern Water should have picked up the fault earlier, a fairly basic diagnosis.

Possibly the most damaging of the five main incidents leading the Environment Agency’s case, as far as the impact on beaches and bathing waters, came the following summer in June 2022 which saw simultaneous failures at Margate and Broadstairs pumping stations,

Thanet District Council closed 11 of the beaches and bathing waters. Advice to keep out of the sea for a week at the height of summer was also posted on Swimfo, the Environment Agency’s online guide to bathing water quality.

According to the Agency, equipment breakdown sent more sewage and debris into the sea for hours. A poorly-maintained circuit board caused the power supply to stop, causing a domino effect for the rest of the plant.

In October 2021 more badly-managed equipment caused a power shutdown at the Broadstairs plant, with more untreated sewage and sanitary items pumped into the sea. In all, 10 beaches were closed by the council.

Southern Water also admitted to another 35 illegal discharges also between 2019 and 2021, and that a pump used to move sewage around its network was out of action for more than a year. They were fined £7,127,083, with costs to the Environment Agency of £149,000, and a victim surcharge of £181.

The Environment Agency charged Southern Water with 13 offences in total all contrary to regulations 12(1)(b) and 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

The Environment Agency is also prosecuting Southern Water for other pollution incidents in Kent between 2019 and 2021, including at Faversham and Whitstable, and in Hampshire in 2023, with sentencing to follow later this year.

Southern Water - “We’re deeply sorry for the incidents”

A statement issued by Southern Water in response said:

“We’re deeply sorry for the incidents in Thanet which led to today's fine. Pollution incidents like these are unacceptable, and we fully recognise the impact they can have on the environment and the communities we serve.

“These events, which impacted Margate and Broadstairs, took place more than 5 years ago - since then we’ve made significant changes. Under a new leadership team, backed by new shareholders, we’ve radically addressed our culture, governance and operations.

“The actions we took at Margate and Broadstairs after an internal review of the incidents and its various causes included implementing 24/7 operational cover, taking steps to make the sites less vulnerable to power outages, additional resilience testing, enhanced monitoring and conducting relevant repairs.”