Southern Water (UK) Deliberately Dumped Massive Amounts Of Raw Sewage Into Sea For Six Years

[hatrack]

Southern Water discharged enormous volumes of raw sewage into protected coastal waters for nearly six years causing “very considerable environmental damage” because it was cheaper than treating it, a court has heard. This was “the worst case brought by the Environment Agency in its history”, the court was told. Southern Water had acted “deliberately” and had reaped “considerable financial advantage” by allowing the discharges.

The Environment Agency’s biggest ever investigation uncovered how the privately owned company dumped untreated sewage into seas that were home to shellfish beds and were supposed to be some of the most protected marine environments in the country.

Andrew Marshall, appearing at the sentencing hearing for the regulator, told Canterbury crown court that Southern Water, which is ultimately under the control of Greensands Holdings, opened storm tanks to release raw sewage into coastal waters in north Kent and the Solent to increase its own financial benefits. The company, also allowed storm tanks to be kept full and to turn septic, instead of putting millions of litres of raw sewage through the treatment process as required by law. In one wastewater treatment plant, Millbrook, outside Southampton, the equivalent of 371 Olympic-sized swimming pools of sewage or 746m litres, were released into Southampton water in four years and eight months.

EDIT

The investigation found that at the 17 sites there were 10,741 discharges of raw sewage, 78% of which (8,400) were illegal. The prosecution is focusing on 6,971 unpermitted discharges of raw sewage to the environment, which amounted to 61,704 hours of releases, or a duration of seven years. At the Eastchurch wastewater treatment works investigators found a sheet of board had been put into the system to stop wastewater flowing into the treatment section of the plant. Instead raw sewage was collected in storm tanks and dumped into the environment.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/06/southern-water-dumped-raw-sewage-into-sea-for-years

[hunter]

1. Multiple people knew what was going on.

That's organized crime.