Thames Water has been ordered to pay more than £700,000 in fines and costs for polluting a tributary of the Thames.
The Environment Agency (EA) took Thames to court after it allowed raw sewage from its Maidenhead Sewage Treatment works to enter the Maidenhead Ditch, which joins the River Cut and flows through to the Thames.
Yesterday (10 July) Thames was ordered to pay fines of £607,000, costs of £100,000 and a victim surcharge of £120 at Aylesbury Crown Court.
The case relates back to incidents in June 2014. An investigation found evidence of repeated discharges of untreated or poorly treated raw sewage into the river and that Thames had failed to react adequately to alarms used to alert the company to the serious problems. Log book entries suggested ongoing discharges and other problems at a site that was struggling to cope, the EA said.
EA officer Ben Govan said: “Our officers believe up to around 30 million litres of sewage polluted the ditch. Hundreds of fish died and the environment suffered as a result of Thames Water’s failures. Pollution could and should have been avoided had the many warnings and alerts leading up to the incident been acknowledged and dealt with properly.
“We take these types of incidents very seriously and will do everything within our powers to safeguard the environment and people affected, and that includes holding those who put the environment at risk to account for their actions.”