Southern Water illegally dumped sewage after £90m fine

Southern Water has admitted further sewage pollution discharges in Kent, some of which took place weeks after it was handed a record £90m penalty for illegal dumping.

The water company had been fined in July 2021 over 6,971 unpermitted discharges across the county, along with Sussex and Hampshire, which were committed between 2010 and 2015.

But at Medway Magistrates' Court earlier in April, it pleaded guilty to five offences of sewage discharge between 2019 and 2021, the Environment Agency (EA) said.

Southern Water said it pleaded guilty to the charges relating to 2019-21 and it was "cooperating fully with the legal process in the magistrates' court".

"As this is an ongoing court matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further," a spokesperson added.

The water firm said that pollution incidents were "never acceptable" and it had been "working hard" to improve, reducing pollution incidents by 38% across the past five years.

The EA said that the firm should have "managed operations more carefully" and had the "necessary checks in place".

Southern Water plants in Whitstable discharged pollution into the sea directly or via the Swalecliffe Brook waterway in August 2021, weeks after the punishment was handed down, according to the EA.

On 6 August of the same year, investigators found that Swalecliffe Brook had about 70 dead fish in it, including eels.

Canterbury City Council also put up signs along Tankerton and Herne Bay beaches to warn against swimming for nearly a week following the incident due to the water quality there.

Elsewhere, Southern Water pleaded guilty after diesel got into Swalecliffe Brook and then the sea when a local wastewater treatment plant generator began leaking in July 2019.

In addition, Southern Water admitted breaches across three days from 5 March 2020 where untreated sewage was dumped into Faversham Creek after a wastewater station's pumps stopped working.

Swalecliffe Brook was also hit on the same day, with sewage carried into the sea, while another "almost identical incident" took place in October 2020, said the regulator.

Dawn Theaker, the EA's water industry regulation manager in the South East, said: "All of these pollution incidents could have been avoided had operations been managed more carefully, with the necessary checks in place to deal with problems when they occurred.

"It's a familiar pattern with water companies - they're always catching up with events."

She added that the EA would "keep Southern Water in its sights with more inspections, even tougher regulation and prosecution in the most serious cases".

Southern Water will be sentenced at Medway Magistrates' Court at a later date.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.