Yorkshire Water has been fined £350,000 for illegally polluting a York waterway.
The company appeared at York Magistrates’ Court today (Friday) for sentencing for two offences – one of illegally polluting Foss Dyke with sewage and another in relation to failing to maintain a pump at the pumping station.
It had previously pleaded guilty to the two offences in November 2024.
The court heard that Yorkshire Water was aware Fossbridge Sewage Pumping Station’s backup pump had not been working for five months.
It had failed to repair it, despite the issue having been noted repeatedly during regular maintenance checks. It should have been fixed within 24 hours.
Martin Christmas, area environment manager for the Environment Agency in Yorkshire, said: “Water companies have a responsibility to ensure their assets are maintained and in working order to protect the environment.
Sewage pumping stations pump sewage through the system to sewage treatment works. It is illegal, unless authorised by an environmental permit, to discharge pollution into watercourses.
Under the environmental permit for Fossbridge Sewage Pumping Station, such a discharge is only allowed in an emergency, such as an electrical or mechanical failure or a blockage, which, if it occurs, must be remedied without delay.
Fossbridge pumping station has a main pump and a backup pump. There is an emergency overflow pipe which discharges sewage into the River Foss if the station fails, to avoid nearby homes connected to the system from being inundated.
Sensors enable Yorkshire Water to monitor the station’s performance including power, pump condition, levels and the operation of the emergency overflow.
Repair not carried out
On 5 October 2017, Yorkshire Water noted the inlet pipe feeding the backup pump was blocked and effluent couldn’t reach it, meaning the pump could not operate.
Although a job was raised to fix this blockage, and it was noted it needed repairs during several subsequent regular maintenance visits, it wasn’t carried out.
Comments from Yorkshire Water during interview said the repair of the backup pump was to be done by an external contractor but had ‘got lost in the ether’.
On 12 March, 2018, the sewage pumping station filled to the point where telemetry alarms sounded indicating a discharge of sewage into Foss Dyke. The alarms were noted at Yorkshire Water’s control centre and attributed to high rainfall.
High rainfall was not a valid reason as the sewage pumping station was only allowed to discharge in an emergency as set out in its environmental permit and not, as with some water company assets like combined sewer overflows, in ‘storm conditions’.
Yorkshire Water did not attend the pumping station, despite the data indicating a sewage spill.
Public concern
Two days later on 14 March, Yorkshire Water received a report from the public about a discharge of sewage from Fossbridge pumping station.
It was found the main pump was running but on ‘low amps’ – which indicates a potential air lock – and the backup pump was still not repaired. Yorkshire Water had no functioning pumps at the pumping station.
The company stopped the discharge and arranged for tankers to transport the sewage away from the pumping station while it was repaired. Reports suggest the pumping station had been discharging intermittently into the watercourse on 12 March, 2018.
Over the following days, two further discharges took place at the pumping station, one because only one tanker was being used to transport sewage from the pumping station and it had not been able to keep up with the flow, and another after the main pump blocked again.
Water samples showed high ammonia levels in the watercourse.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We take our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously and we apologise that in this instance; mistakes were made that meant we fell below our usual standards on our systems and processes. We acknowledged these with the Environment Agency and cooperated fully with their investigation.
“We have conducted a full review and addressed the issues that had been identified. As acknowledged in court today, we have also made sure that the learnings from this incident are embedded across our business in respect of improvements to our processes.
“We are working hard to improve our performance through the robust improvement plan we have in place. Over the next five years, we’re investing £8.3billion to improve our assets which is our largest ever environmental investment here in Yorkshire.”