Thames Water fined for sewage leak

The water company was fined £50,000 and £2,854 costs after it was found guilty of shoddy maintenance, which led to a huge leak of raw sewage from holding tanks into the Dagenham Brook and River Lea in August last year.

It took three days to clean up the pollution, which affected a 1.75 mile stretch of the waterway between Walthamstow and Leyton.

A member of the public first raised the alarm after noticing the water level had risen significantly.

Environment Agency officials found that the water had turned a cloudy grey colour due to effluence.

Thames Water, which reported record profits last year, admitted at Snaresbrook Crown Court causing polluting matter to enter a controlled waterway.

Howard McCann, for the Environment Agency, told the court the sewage had escaped from a temporary concrete strom tank which had been poorly maintained.

Despite the fact that there had been very little rain in August last year, all five were in use.

Mr McCann described the leak as serious and added: "The whole point of the storm tanks is so that any sewage does not flow into the watercourse."

He said the 50m long tanks were so poorly maintained that vegetation could be seen growing out of the crack which caused the leak.

Jonathan Barnard, representing Thames Water, said that the leak from the tanks was the only incident to have happened at the facility in Walthamstow and the brook was already "chronically polluted."

He said that there was a system in place to check the tanks, and told the court that new tanks are no longer built in sections, reducing the risk of leakage.

But judge Mr Recorder John Jones said that this was the 87th conviction in 15 years.

"It does seem that these tanks, then 46 years old, were not being maintained as well as they could have been.

"It is a very serious matter when raw sewage flows through a brook which is exposed to an industrial estate, playing fields, allotments and people's back gardens."