Thames Water has been struck with a £2 million fine for "reckless" sewage pollution in Oxfordshire.

The incident occurred in August 2015, when raw sewage emptied into a brook in Idbury leading to the River Evenlode, killing almost 150 bullhead fish and flooding a nearby garden.

Investigations found that the utility failed to manage a sewage pumping station correctly, which resulted in the discharge of raw sewage.

The court heard Thames Water disregarded more than 800 high-priority alarms needing attention within four hours in the six weeks before the incident. Another 300 alarms were not properly investigated, all of which would have pointed out failures with the pumping station. One alarm was deliberately deactivated during a night shift.

Judge Peter Ross, at Oxford Crown Court on 21 December, ruled the incident as a high-end, category three harm offence, stating the pollution could have occurred for up to 24 hours.


Robert Davis, who led the investigation for the Environment Agency, said: "This incident was foreseeable and avoidable. Thames Water didn't recognise the increased risk to the environment, ignoring or failing to respond adequately to more than 1,000 alarms.

"We hope this prosecution sends a loud and clear message that the Environment Agency will not accept poor operation, management and maintenance of sewage pumping stations. Where we have evidence of offending and serious pollution incidents like here, we will take appropriate action to bring polluters to justice.

"Judge Ross said Thames Water was 'reckless' by taking an unacceptable level of risk with the environment. It allowed the sewage pumping station to operate with no automatically available standby pump for around 10 months in the year prior to the pollution."

Judge Ross ordered Thames Water to pay full costs of £79,991.57.

Responding to the judge's order, Thames Water's External Affairs and Sustainability Director, Richard Aylard said: "We take our role in protecting the environment extremely seriously and are really sorry for what happened here in 2015.

"We have made a series of improvements since this regrettable incident, including bringing in more people, more maintenance, more training and better systems. In the three-and-a half-years since, we have not had a serious incident at any of our 4,700 pumping stations.

"We would like to re-assure our customers that we continue to innovate and drive further improved performance right across the business, to help us achieve our ambition of zero pollutions."

(CM/MH)