Anglian Water fined for pumping sewage into Cambridgeshire river leading to deaths of dozens of fish

A water firm has been fined £18,000 for dumping sewage into a river which led to the deaths of dozens of fish.

The effluent flooded into the river at Yaxley near Peterborough for hours, with Anglian Water blamed for its slow response to the problem.

A dog-walker spotted the problem in February 2019, reporting a creamy substance on the surface of the water. She said she saw fish leaping from the water as if they had been electrocuted or attacked.

The company has been fined £18,000 for failures at a pumping station near Peterborough that an investigation said showed up their "reactive attitude" to pollution.

• Footage filmed by the Environment Agency shows the pollution flooding into the river

District judge Ken Sheraton said Anglian Water should have given "a higher category of response" to a second sewage pump failing because the site at Yaxley was operating at a lower capacity with one pump already out of order.

The two pumps were meant to regulate the flow of sewage but had stopped working a week apart. It meant raw sewage poured into Pig Water Drain for several hours before an engineer arrived.

Environment Agency investigators said one Anglian Water employee had told the technician there was nothing wrong and that no sewage was being pumped into the river.

Roach, pike and eel were among 60 dead fish recovered from the scene, but fisheries specialists from the Environment Agency believe many more would have been killed by reduced oxygen and toxic ammonia in the water.

Louis de Quincey, who led the Environment Agency investigation, said: "With only one sewage pump in operation, this was always likely to increase the chances of an incident.

"Anglian Water should have sped up its response time as a result. Six hours passed before a technician stopped sewage entering the water.

"Anglian Water could and should have acted quicker."

In polluting Pig Water Drain, Anglian Water pleaded guilty to one count of breaching regulations 12 (1) (b) and 38 (1) (a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

Sitting at Peterborough Magistrates' Court on 4 May, District Judge Sheraton also ordered Anglian Water to pay £10,957.80 in costs to the Environment Agency and a victim surcharge of £170.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Anglian Water said: "We take our responsibilities to the natural environment very seriously, and deeply regret the incident at one of our pumping stations in Yaxley in 2019."

It said it monitored sites continuously through sensors and alarms, adding: "However, on this occasion a number of factors combined and one of our pumps didn’t work as it should have done because of an intermittent signal failure on a flow sensor.

"Our technician responded to the alarm and, once on site quickly stopped the flow, however, there was a spill from the pumping station into the Pig Water Drain and a short section of the Yaxley Lode.  The issue was resolved and the impact was short lived.

"As the judge noted, the actions taken by the technician on the day helped to minimise any further damage. The control system was rectified within 24 hours of the issue occurring."

Just last month a protest was held outside the firm's headquarters in Huntingdon over allegations it dumped sewage in the River Cam.

Demonstrators say it is dragging its feet in preventing storm overflows from leaking into the waterway, but the firm said it was investing in stopping the problem.