United Utilities fined £900k over sewage discharges

A water company has been fined £900,000 for a sewage leak which led to swimming being banned on a stretch of coastline.

United Utilities (UU) Water Ltd admitted five offences over the major pollution incident on Lancashire's Fylde coastline in June 2023.

Preston Magistrates' Court heard a pipe collapse at Fleetwood Wastewater Treatment Works led to raw sewage being discharged into the Irish Sea for more than 35 hours. The Environment Agency (EA) said it was an "unacceptable pollution incident which had far-reaching consequences for residents and businesses".

UU said it had immediately accepted responsibility, apologised unreservedly and had taken steps to fix the problems as soon as possible.

UU was fined £964,225 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to five environmental permit offences at an earlier hearing.

The offences related to incidents between 11 and 22 June 2023 when raw sewage was discharged into the Irish Sea from three coastal pumping stations for more than 35 hours in total over several days.

The court heard the pipe, which had only been installed 28 years ago, had been buried much too deeply - about 5m below ground level rather than 2.4m.

The EA said sewage was reported on beaches and in marine recreational facilities including Fleetwood baths.

UU's own modelling showed a sewage plume had touched seven bathing waters and significantly impacted bathing water quality in the hours following the spills.

As a result, the EA issued "no bathing" advice across all eight designated bathing waters along the affected coastline, while sampling carried out during the incident by a trained citizen scientist was also indicative of the presence of E. coli.

Three shellfish beds were also temporarily closed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) due to public health concerns.

Communities and businesses along the coast were impacted significantly by the contamination, the EA said, with popular tourist destinations including Blackpool and St Annes among those badly affected.

It said in Blackpool alone, summer visitor numbers fell by hundreds of thousands compared with the previous year.

An EA investigation found the incident began following the partial collapse of a final effluent pipe at Fleetwood Wastewater Treatment Works, which reduced the amount of sewage the site could receive and caused sewage to back up through the wider system.

Following periods of rainfall, sewage was subsequently discharged from three coastal pumping stations at Manchester Square, Anchorsholme and Chatsworth Avenue.

UU's environmental permits set strict conditions on when sewage could be discharged from pumping stations.

Further investigation into flow and spill data provided by the company found those conditions had not been met when the spills took place, the EA said.

Andy Brown, the Environment Agency's water regulation manager, told BBC North West Tonight the large fine "sent out an important message".

He said: "This was an unacceptable pollution incident which had far-reaching consequences for residents and businesses along the Fylde coast.

"Our investigation found that United Utilities Water Limited discharged sewage outside the conditions of its environmental permits.

"The company admitted those breaches, and today's record fine reflects the seriousness of the offences and the harm caused."

The court heard UU accepted straight away it was its fault and apologised unreservedly and took steps to fix the problems as quickly as possible.

Four hundred staff worked around the clock to repair the damage at a cost of £38m.

Since then, UU said it had started to install a state-of-the-art new system in January.

It also said it had donated to community projects.

Chris Borradaile, from UU, told BBC North West Tonight: "We have committed to the full extent of the pipeline - 1.5km - and that is costing around £66m.

"Typically that would have taken three years to carry out that sort of construction but we are doing that in 12 months."

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