Anglian Water fined £2.65m after Jaywick sewage discharge

A water company has been fined £2.65m after millions of litres of untreated sewage overflowed into the North Sea.

Anglian Water pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court to two counts of unauthorised releases and breaches of environmental permits.

The prosecution followed an Environment Agency investigation in 2018 into discharges at Jaywick Water Recycling Centre near Clacton-on-Sea.

Anglian Water also has to pay £16,520 in costs and a £170 victim surcharge.

Jeremy Hay, senior environment officer at the Environment Agency, said the sentence "sends out the message that we will not hesitate to prosecute companies which endanger communities and disregard the environment and the law".

The agency said it was the largest ever fine for environmental offences in the Eastern region.

The discharges, recorded between June and July in 2018, were the equivalent of more than three Olympic-sized swimming pools - or 7,500,000 litres (1,649,769 gallons), the agency said.

The agency said the discharges happened after Anglian Water decommissioned a piece of equipment at the site which led to the conditions for untreated sewage to be released into the North Sea.

Anglian Water also failed to act on available data which would have alerted it to the issues.

There was also a lack of an alarm system to inform the water company of how often the discharges were occurring.

District Judge Timothy King said fact that "Anglian Water finds itself in court so frequently" must be reflected in the level of the fine.

He referred to "a clear pattern of the company not responding adequately" to previous penalties.

Since 2010, water companies have been responsible for self-monitoring water recycling sites with Environment Agency guidance that sites should be inspected every eight years.

The water company pleaded guilty to one offence of illegal discharge, contravening environmental permit conditions, and a second count of breaching environmental permit conditions for storm discharge permissions.

An Anglian Water spokeswoman said it apologised "wholeheartedly" and added "one spill is one too many".

She added: "On this occasion, the judge found that there was no harmful impact on the environment, so we are disappointed and confused about the level of the fine and the way it was derived.

"There is no place for spills but fines should be proportionate to the environmental impact. On this occasion the judge agreed that there was none."

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]