Water firm admits six years of illegal pollution

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c24djd273y6o

Posted by Tartan_Samurai

11 Comments

  1. OldJonThePooSmuggler on

    South West water are a set of bastards. Watch the splendid Dirty Business if youve not seen it

  2. Popular_Working_2234 on

    I’m willing to bet that not a single person goes to jail for it, either. Yet you can be sent to prison for fly tipping.

  3. anangrywizard on

    It’s so much worst than the headline (somehow.)

    > South West Water has admitted 18 pollution offences across Devon and Cornwall after years of illegal spills which affected rivers, beaches and protected wildlife habitats.

    >Investigators found 336 illegal spills in the seven years to March 2020 at the firm’s Bodmin sewage works. Sewage reached the River Camel, a protected conservation area known for Atlantic salmon, otters and bullhead fish.

    >Untreated sewage was released 231 times between 2016 and 2021 at Harlyn beach in Cornwall, which is popular with families and tourists.

    >Sewage flowed into Hooe Lake in Plymouth for 88 hours over a bank holiday weekend from 28 August to 1 September 2020 after a failure at the pumping station there.

  4. don’t worry, they will increase water prices to make sure they can pay the fines AND the CEO bonuses

  5. Awesome sounds like grounds for another price hike and unprecedented investor bonuses. If they could just redirect the sewage into my drinking water I think I’d be in heaven. 

  6. threemorereasons on

    According to google, Aouth West Water’s parent company, Pennon Group, reported an 8.6% increase in underlying operating profits to £166.3 million for the last financial year.

    Being fined £2.15 million is peanuts by comparison.

  7. AlarmedCicada256 on

    So: 1. nationalise them, they’re unfit for purpose. No compensation, just pass an act of Parliament. 2. Punish all the executives inolved over the years. If foreign, prohibit them from holding business interests in the UK.

  8. WingiestOfMirrors on

    I work for a company that designs and builds sewerage treatment works and I’m moving onto a contract to directly deal with these events in one part of the country. Total works package is £1.5billion (my company has a tiny allocation from that so I can’t give any grand strategies). There is progress being made on these things. Is it enough, I don’t know but it’s worth knowing that the public pressure is getting change in this