Environment Agency | The Environment Agency has prosecuted Welsh Water for breaking conditions of an environmental permit at a Herefordshire sewage treatment works seven times in a five-month period, in breach of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.
At Kidderminster Magistrates Court, Welsh Water was fined £24,000 for exceeding permitted levels of sewage effluent from the Clehonger Sewage Treatment Works near Hereford. The company was also ordered to pay costs of £11,835.86 and a surcharge of £181.
Sewage treatment works treat raw sewage to produce an effluent which is discharged without damaging the local watercourse. At Clehonger, the water is discharged into the Cage Brook which is a tributary of the River Wye.
The court was told that officers from the Environment Agency were alerted to an issue following routine sampling results in November 2020.
The environmental permit states that Welsh Water must not discharge effluent containing more than 18 milligrams/litre of ammonia on more than two occasions in a 12-month period.
Results showed that in a five-month period from 23 November 2020 to 17 April 2021 the limit had been exceeded seven times ranging from 18.2 mg/l to 26.2 mg/l.
Officials from Welsh Water told the Environment Agency that the company was aware of additional loading coming into the site from a new development.
In mitigation, Welsh Water said that it had spent a significant amount of money to improve the infrastructure at the site, adding that since this incident there had been no further issues or breaches of permit condition.
