'Reckless' South West Water fined £7.8 million

South West Water (SWW) has been fined more than £7.8 million in a case brought by the Environment Agency for environmental offences across Devon and Cornwall over a six-year period.

It is the largest ever fine imposed for environmental offences in the region. 

Delivering her sentence, District Judge Matson said that “incidents of pollution will not be tolerated” and fined the water company £7,867,733 today (29 September) at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court. 

The judge repeatedly found that the company’s conduct amounted to reckless failures in management systems and response to known risks. 

The company had pleaded guilty at earlier court hearings to 18 charges, 17 for illegal water discharge activities and one charge for failing to take reasonable remedial measures following failure at a pumping station. 

The offences took place between January 2015 and July 2021 in locations across Cornwall and Devon: Bodmin, Harlyn, Playing Place, Polperro and Plymouth. 

The water company was ordered to pay £329,993 costs and £120 victim surcharge. 

SWW previously pleaded guilty to six criminal charges relating to spills at Holywell Sewage Pumping Station. These will be considered at a later date to be determined.   

Hundreds of sewage spills took place over six years at popular bathing spots and some of our most sensitive habitats. 

The Judge quoted SWW’s mantra that “one pollution is too many”, and said that SWW need to make sure they carry their new mantra forward “to ensure that horrendous, very significant incidents of pollution such as these never happen again”. 

On 24 August 2019, “untreated sewage gushed through the harbour wall on a bank holiday weekend” at Polperro Harbour. South West Water were fined £1.1 million for this single incident. 

Despite alarms firing, SWW took 10 hours to attend the incident. 

Across multiple sites, SWW failed to put in place and enforce systems of environmental management as could be reasonably expected.