Thames Water has been fined over £200,000 for polluting the River Blackwater, a tributary of the River London in Surrey.

The firm was fined £220,000 and ordered to pay costs of £27,500 at Guildford Crown Court.

Thames Water was found guilty of breaching its environmental permit by allowing partially treated sewage and an illegal storm discharge to enter the River Blackwater. The pollution killed a significant number of fish, including Roach, Gudgeon, Minnow, Perch, Dace and Chub.

The court heard Thames Water plead guilty to breaching its environmental permit and causing pollution to an environmentally sensitive site on 7th September and 30th September 2012, when illegal discharges of polluting effluent occurred from their sewage treatment works (STW) located on Doman Road in Camberley.

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The Environment Agency received reports of dead fish at Shepherd Meadows Nature Reserve at midday on 7 September 2012. Environment Agency officers responded quickly and observed distressed, gasping and dead fish in the river margins from Blackwater train station to Shepherds Meadow, nearly 2 kilometres downstream of the STW.

The problem at the STW led to partially treated effluent being discharged into the river, which had the effect of suffocating fish in its path by depriving them of oxygen over a distance of approximately 1.5 kilometres.

At court, Thames Water blamed its contractors for causing it to commit the offence. Judge Lucas QC did not accept this mitigation. The Judge concluded that the company had been reckless in relation to the incident and that significant environmental harm had been caused by the incident.

(CD/MH)