Environment Agency in UK penalises Southern Water for 2012 accidental sewage discharge

Environment Agency (EA) in the UK has imposed a fine of £160,000 on Southern Water for the accidental discharge of untreated sewage from its East Worthing Wastewater Treatment Works in 2012.

The firm has also been ordered to pay costs of £27,000 for the incident on 1 September, 2012 which was caused due to technical glitches at its facility.

The accident had led to the emergency release of around 40 million litres of untreated sewage in total over a period of two days in to the sea.

Failure of three pumps at the facility had caused the effluent to be passed on to the sea directly without prior screening which is mandatory according to EA permits issued to the utility.

Following the accident, Southern Water had said: "The problems began when there was a build-up of non-biodegradable debris which meant we were unable to pump incoming flows through the correct treatment channels. There were also electrical problems at the site.

"Diverting wastewater into the sea, via the emergency outfall, was necessary to prevent localised flooding in Worthing."

This discharge had resulted in the closure of all beaches between the West Sussex coastal towns of Lancing to Ferring for six days, reports WaterWorld.

Southern Water director of operations Phil Barker said: "We apologise to any customers or businesses who were affected by the incident at our East Worthing wastewater treatment works back in 2012."

"This is a significant fine but we have already invested over a hundred times that amount over the past three years to improve the site and install back-up systems to help reduce the risk of a future emergency."

"We are disappointed with the verdict but we have a responsibility to our customers and we took the tough decision to make a controlled release of untreated wastewater into the sea to protect homes and the hospital from flooding."