Yorkshire Water has been fined £233,000 after pleading guilty to a pollution incident in 2017 in which wastewater was discharged into Tong Beck near Bradford.
A valve failure at a pumping station in Cockerdale, near Bradford, led to waste discharging into the waterbody between 4th and 8th November.
The Environment Agency analysed the impact caused by the discharge and found “significant damage to the ecology of the beck”. Hundreds of adult and juvenile brown trout downstream from the pumping station died after the spill.
The automated, unmanned pumping station used to be part of a sewage works and had upgraded pumps added by Yorkshire in 2012 after the EA raised concerns about the equipment.
The site features telemetry monitoring of the pumps. However, the EA found there was no such monitoring on the rising main. Therefore the system did not notify Yorkshire’s monitoring station of the valve failure.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “In November 2017 we had an issue at our Dale Road pumping station that resulted in wastewater being discharged into the nearby beck. As soon as we found the discharge, we mobilised a number of teams who arrived within minutes to stop the wastewater entering the beck and mitigate the impact on the local environment. Due to the mitigation we put in place, the ecological impact was short term.
“Our investigations showed that this was unfortunately down to human error and we’ve taken all the learnings on board to try make sure this doesn’t happen again. We’re sorry this incident occurred and we’ve since invested £1.7 million at the pumping station to further improve its performance,” they said.
The EA said Yorkshire expressed remorse and acted quickly when it became aware of the incident to sample, analyse and monitor the area followed by a clean-up and repairs to the pumping station.
A spokesperson for the EA said: “Yorkshire Water’s failure to adequately safeguard its systems has led to significant damage to the ecology of Tong Beck, which may take many years to recover. We welcome the ruling by magistrates in Leeds today and hope that this sends a strong message to others that the Environment Agency will hold polluters to account.”
As well as the fine, the company paid costs of £18,000 and a surcharge following the prosecution at Leeds Crown Court last week.