Anglian Water has been fined £50,000 and required to pay £44,000 in costs after sewage contaminated a brook through an emergency overflow pipe killing more than 1,500 fish.
All three pumps at Ingrave Pumping Station, near Brentwood, Essex had failed in the early hours of Sunday 10 April 2011 and sewage polluted more than four kilometers of the Haverings Grove Brook.
A variety of fish species died including bullhead, stoneloach, minnow, stickleback, chub, dace and gudgeon. Many of these species were spawning at the time, so it is likely that the incident had a significant impact on reproduction.
The company was also ordered to pay a contribution towards Environment Agency costs of £44,736 and a victim surcharge of £15.
The Environment Agency brought the prosecution against Anglian Water, who entered late guilty pleas to breaching two conditions of their environmental permit at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Thursday last week.
Breached telemetry permit condition
The permit authorises Anglian Water to discharge sewage to the brook via the emergency overflow pipe in the event of emergency. However, the permit also contains telemetry conditions which apply in the event of an emergency overflow, two which were not complied with.
Mr Mark Watson, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said:
“There was a pattern of failure to respond appropriately to alarms and telemetry data in the run up to 10 April 2011.”
At the time of the incident, there were three pumps at Ingrave Pumping Station. One a day stopped working over three days but no alarms were set off. At one point this left the pumping station with no operational pumps for 12 hours.
Mr Watson said:
“It is clear that at some point after midnight, in the early hours of 10 April 2011, a discharge of crude sewage from the emergency overflow commenced. However, no emergency overflow alarm was ever generated or received”.
Ms Sarah Le Fevre, Defence Counsel, said Anglian Water deeply regretted the incident and took some comfort from the scale of the company’s operation with their telemetry system representing one of the largest in Western Europe.
At the time of the incident, they were not aware that the wet well alarm was not designed to activate if the pump station was running on the back-up system. Various remedial and precautionary actions have been taken since the incident.
With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, then environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”
ERG, the leading supplier of odour control systems and industrial gas cleaning & thermal systems, has been awarded the coveted King’s Award for Enterprise.
Welsh Water’s new artificial intelligence-driven tool, ORAI, has been shortlisted for three categories at the prestigious British Data Awards 2026 – underscoring the company’s commitment to using cutting-edge technology to deliver better outcome for customers.
Barhale has completed work on two separate Rapid Action Taskforce Spills projects it is carrying out for Severn Trent.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.
Find out more about the remarkable career opportunities on offer at WSP - scroll down to watch the inspirational video.