SOUTH WEST WATER FINED £7.9M OVER POLLUTION OFFENCES

South West Water has been fined £7,867,733 at Plymouth Magistrates' Court for pollution offences across Devon and Cornwall between January 2015 and July 2021, in a case brought by the Environment Agency. The company pleaded guilty to 18 charges, 17 for illegal sewage discharges and one for failing to take remedial measures after a pumping station failure. District Judge Jo Matson found the conduct amounted to reckless failures in its management and response to known risks. It was ordered to pay £329,993 in costs and a £120 victim surcharge.

The offences occurred at sites in Bodmin, Harlyn, Playing Place and Polperro in Cornwall, and Plymouth in Devon. On 24 August 2019, untreated sewage gushed through the harbour wall at Polperro on a bank holiday weekend; the Environment Agency said South West Water took ten hours to attend despite alarms sounding, and was fined £1.1 million for the incident. Untreated sewage was discharged onto Harlyn beach on 231 occasions between 2016 and 2021, and its works near Bodmin recorded 336 illegal spills to March 2020, the regulator said. Judge Matson described the pollution as "horrendous" and "very significant".

The Environment Agency said the fine is the largest it has secured against South West Water, and the largest for environmental offences in the region. It follows a £1.8 million fine imposed on the company in July over a parasite outbreak, and a £2.1 million fine in 2023 for causing pollution in the region. South West Water said: "We apologise for what happened in the past." The company has also pleaded guilty to six charges relating to spills at Holywell Sewage Pumping Station, to be considered by the court at a later date.

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