Midlands water company Severn Trent has agreed an enforcement undertaking with the Environment Agency (EA) to give £327,500 to a charity after it polluted a Gloucestershire brook.
The rivers and seas watchdog received reports of dead fish on 19 August 2021 at School Lane, Quedgeley, near Gloucester.
An EA investigation found that raw sewage from a blocked sewer was discharged into a brook near Gloucester, impacting almost 2km of the watercourse.
An inspection revealed hundreds of dead sticklebacks and thousands of dead invertebrates, as well as several eels and approximately 20 bullhead fish.
During further investigations, the EA officer saw what he believed to be a discharge of crude sewage coming out of the bankside into the brook.
An ecological impact assessment concluded that 1.7km of Dimore Brook had been affected and that the vast majority of aquatic animal life had been killed by the sewage discharge.
EA officers said that Severn Trent had responded to the incident in a timely manner.
‘An effective tool to put things right’
The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust is using the funds of the enforcement undertaking in a three-year programme to improve various projects close to the impacted area.
An enforcement undertaking is an alternative sanction to prosecution or monetary penalty for dealing with certain environmental offences. It involves a legally binding voluntary agreement and usually includes a donation to a wildlife charity to carry out environmental remediation in the affected areas.
Ian Skuse, the investigating officer for the West Midlands Environment Agency, said: “While we will always take forward prosecutions in the most serious cases, enforcement undertakings are an effective enforcement tool to allow companies to put things right and contribute to environmental improvements.
“They allow polluters to correct and restore the harm caused to the environment and prevent repeat incidents by improving their procedures, helping ensure future compliance with environmental requirements.”
Minister for water and flooding Emma Hardy said the government will toughen legislation to crack down on water companies responsible for pumping sewage into England’s rivers.
She said: “As an immediate step, the Water (Special Measures) Bill will strengthen regulation, including new powers to ban the payment of bonuses for polluting water bosses and bring criminal charges against persistent lawbreakers.”
