South West Water has been ordered to pay £33,000 in fines and costs for failing to properly maintain sewage treatment works serving three small west country communities.

A court heard there had been a history of failures and non-compliance at treatment works in Treskinnick near Bude, Cornwall, Black Dog near Crediton, Devon and Holcombe Rogus near Wellington, Somerset. When officers inspected Treskinnick on May 19, 2011 they noticed the filter bed wasn’t working. The final effluent was ‘odorous and black’ and was polluting a nearby stream. Copious amounts of sewage fungus were present on the bed of the stream. A sample of final effluent indicated the sewage was poorly treated. The pollution killed most of the aquatic life in the stream over a distance of 600 metres.

An environmental survey indicated the pollution also impacted the Wanson Water further down the catchment. This larger watercourse flows into Widemouth Bay, a popular surfing beach, some 2.5 km from the treatment works. This latest breach followed problems at Treskinnick in 2009 and 2010 when the site failed initial inspections by the Agency. The treatment works serves a small rural hamlet of around 30 people. Black Dog sewage treatment works breached its consent on three occasions in 2010 and again in July 2011 when it failed an inspection.

Breaches at the Holcombe Rogus treatment works occurred between June 2010 and March 2011. The Environment Agency notified South West Water of the sub-standard conditions at all three treatment works resulting from an apparent lack of maintenance, but insufficient action was taken to rectify the problems and improve the level of compliance at each site.

‘These pollution incidents were avoidable and resulted from a failure on the part of South West Water to maintain these sites in accordance with their Environmental Permits. Even small sewage treatment works’ require maintenance and investment and should not be neglected by site operators,’ said Louise Weller for the Environment Agency.

South West Water, Peninsula House, Rydon Lane, Exeter was fined £7,000 for each sewage treatment works and ordered to pay £12,000 costs after pleading guilty to a total of five offences under the Environmental Permitting Act 2010. The case was heard by Bodmin magistrates last Friday (February 3).