Raw sewage flow costs Yorkshire Water £ 5,000

Trevor Cooper, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that sewage flowed from Linley Bank Sewage Pumping Station, Hackenthorpe on March 30 and 31, 2006 and affected the Shire Brook for 800 metres through Beighton Marsh Nature Reserve to where it meets the River Rother.

One of the station’s two pumps had been out of order since March 27, and on March 30 at 4.52am, the second pump failed. Although this pump was reset, it failed again and Yorkshire Water Services did not respond to the alarm which went off at 5.56am and another three warnings later in the day.

Yorkshire Water Services did not check what was happening to the Shire Brook until called to site by the Environment Agency the following day (March 31).

When inspecting the Shire Brook, an Environment Agency officer observed sewage litter, sewage odour and sewage fungus on the bed of the watercourse. Water sampling confirmed the presence of raw sewage.

Yorkshire Water Services Limited pleaded guilty to the charges and asked for a further offence relating to a broken down pump during 2007 to be taken into consideration.

Speaking after the case, Environment Officer Ian Harrison said: “This case highlights the importance of responding to alarms. Yorkshire Water could have avoided polluting the watercourse if it had responded promptly to its alarms and the impact would have been reduced if the company had acted on Environment Agency advice. Where failure to respond to alarms and human error results in pollution, we will enforce the legislation to protect the environment.”