Yorkshire Water fined over watercourse sewage leak
Getty ImagesYorkshire Water has been fined £350,000 after a watercourse was polluted with sewage.
The spill happened at Foss Dike, near York, in March 2018 close to a faulty pumping station the company knew was broken, the Environment Agency said.
Yorkshire Water was fined at York Magistrates' Court on Friday, having previously pleaded guilty to two offences related to the incident last November.
In a statement to the BBC, Yorkshire Water apologised for the incident and said it was investing more than £8bn into its infrastructure.
The Environment Agency said Yorkshire Water had been aware Fossbridge Sewage Pumping Station's backup pump had not been working for five months prior to the spill.
The issue had been repeatedly flagged during maintenance checks and should have been fixed within 24 hours, the authority said.
'Mistakes were made'
The Environment Agency said that high rainfall was not a valid reason for the spillage, as sewage could only be discharged into the watercourse in an emergency.
Martin Christmas, area environment manager for the Environment Agency, said: "Water companies have a responsibility to ensure their assets are maintained and in working order to protect the environment.
"Yorkshire Water failed to take action despite being aware of the risks posed by one of its pumps being out of action, which led to a sewage spill."
A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said the pump was subsequently fixed after the incident and had remained functional since.
They said: "We take our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously and we apologise that in this instance; mistakes were made that meant we fell below our usual standards on our systems and processes.
"We acknowledged these with the Environment Agency and cooperated fully with their investigation.
"We have conducted a full review and addressed the issues that had been identified."
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