Anglian Water Services Ltd has been fined after discharging poorly treated sewage effluent into the North Sea on two occasions last year. The incidents took place at the Clacton (Holland Haven) Sewage Treatment Works, Essex. Anglian Water holds an environmental permit from the Environment Agency allowing for the discharge of up to 27,419 cubic metres per day of secondary treated sewage effluent to the North Sea.

Today (17 December 2013), they admitted to Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court that discharges had breached numeric limits imposed under the permit. They were fined a total of £28,000, ordered to pay full costs of £3,375.39 and a victim surcharge of £120. On each occasion, the treatment works failed to meet numeric limits prescribed by the Urban Waste Water Treatment (England and Wales) Regulations 1994 which implement the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC).

Mr Jamie Fairfull, a Senior Environment Officer of the Environment Agency, said: “Clacton Sewage Treatment works is now seeing considerable investment. These incidents may have been avoided if that investment had been put in place earlier. “There has been a long history of permit breaches at the site and the incidents in 2012 involved significant breaches of a permit condition. “Whilst we did not measure any environmental impact in this case, discharges of poorly treated sewage effluent can result in negative conditions for aquatic life far beyond the discharge area.” The aim of the legislation is to protect the environment from the adverse effects of urban waste water, comprising domestic and trade effluent and rainwater.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010, between 2 and 5 March 2012 and 24 and 27 April 2012. A third offence which took place between 7 and 10 May 2012, was admitted and taken into consideration, also involving a discharge of sewage effluent that failed to meet these numeric limits Anglian Water confirmed that all of the incidents were due to solids loss and were associated with heavy rain causing instability in the treatment process.

Mrs Claire Corfield, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said: “The works are designed to deal with storm events, so heavy rain should not have an adverse impact on the treatment process. “These incidents could have been avoided had effluent treatment at the works been more carefully managed.”

The incidents involved breaches of upper tier limits which discharges must never exceed. For Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) the upper tier limit is 50 mg/l and for Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) the upper tier limit is 250 mg/l. A sample taken in March 2012, revealed BOD of 392 mg/l and COD of 3,390 mg/l; a sample taken in April 2012 revealed BOD of 66.7 mg/l. The sample taken in May 2012, revealed BOD of 247mg/l and COD of 983 mg/l. Sample results also revealed that the treated effluent discharging from the works was of a poorer quality than the sewage effluent entering the works. The March 2012 sample results showed the percentage reduction for BOD was minus 20.25 per cent and for COD was minus 376.13 per cent. The May 2012 sample results showed the percentage reduction for BOD was minus 104.14 per cent and for COD was minus 129.14 per cent. This showed that the effluent leaving the works was more polluting than that entering.