ESG Enforcement Tracker

Key facts:

On 7 June 2024, Welsh Water pleaded guilty to breaking conditions of an environmental permit at a sewage treatment works near Hereford between August 2020 and June 2021. Welsh Water was fined £90,000 for exceeding permitted levels of sewage effluent into the River Wye from the Kingstone and Madley sewage treatment works. The company was also ordered to pay costs of £14,085.05 and a £190 surcharge.

The prosecution was brought by the Environment Agency, who had been alerted to an issue following routine sampling results in July 2021. The environmental permit stated that during monthly sampling visits, Welsh Water must not discharge effluent containing more than 7 milligrams per litre of biochemical oxygen demand on more than 2 occasions in a 12-month period.

From 6 August 2020 to 19 June 2021, the sampling system showed that Welsh Water allowed levels to exceed the permitted levels on 3 occasions. On 8 August 2020, the levels were recorded at 13 milligrams per litre; on 19 May 2021, levels were recorded at 74 milligrams per litre; and 19 June 2021 levels, were recorded at 41 milligrams per litre.

The court was told that such levels indicated that the treatment works was performing very poorly and that it was extremely unusual to have this many breaches in a 12-month period.

A report concluded that this showed “either poor operational management, inadequate asset provision or a mixture of both.”

Welsh Water, in mitigation, said on the first 2 occasions, they could not identify a “root cause” for the permit breaches. On the third occasion, the company said the breach had occurred during a “significant storm.”

According to a Welsh Water spokesperson, Welsh Water had self-reported the issue to the Environment Agency and was “fully open and transparent during their investigation”.