Wednesday 3 April 2019

Yorkshire Water donates £200k after sewage pollution

Yorkshire Water has donated £200,000 to a charity after a sewage pollution incident near Doncaster.

The donation to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust comes after the water company admitted to sewage entering the Pissy Beds Drain, a tributary that eventually leads into the River Trent, in September 2015.

It is part of an Enforcement Undertaking (EU) agreed with the Environment Agency (EA) – which was officially accepted in February 2019 - whereby polluters can make an offer to pay for or carry out environmental improvements as an alternative to any other enforcement action.

The EA was made aware of a burst at a main surface water sewer in September 2015 but further investigations showed a transfer of foul sewage between pumping stations led to raw sewage entering the Pissy Beds Drain near Hatfield Colliery.

Elevated ammonia and low dissolved oxygen levels were detected due to sewage entering the watercourse, which had the potential to harm fish.

Yorkshire Water Services cleaned the watercourse and repaired the burst at a cost of £235,000 and carried out an end to end review of their telemetry system to ensure early warnings are received and acted on, with additional alarms put in place.

Louise Cresswell, the East Midlands Area Director at the Environment Agency said: “Enforcements Undertakings allow polluters restore the harm caused to the environment and prevent repeat incidents.

“They offer a quick resolution and help offenders who are prepared to take responsibility for their actions to voluntarily make things right. We will continue to seek prosecutions against those who cause severe pollution or who act recklessly.”

Yorkshire Water told ELN it is not commenting on the incident.