United Utilities fined £13,000 for Huntington Water Treatment Works blunder

Sep 9 2009 by Naomi Dunning, Chester Chronicle

ENVIRONMENT chiefs found 17 times the legal limit of aluminium in a drain outside the Huntington Water Treatment Works, Chester Magistrates court heard on Thursday September 3).

Officials say the contaminated water could have killed fish and caused environmental damage if it had made its way through the drain and into the River Dee.

Magistrates fined United Utilities £12,000 for the breach and an additional £996.84 for costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

The court heard that although bosses at the United Utilities owned water treatment works knew their pumps had failed causing sludge containing the metal to overflow into the drain they had failed to notify the Environment Agency.

A routine check of the water taken from the Huntington drain by Environment Agency officers near the treatment works alerted them to the high level of aluminium in the water - there was 103 micrograms per litre when the specified legal level is six micrograms per litre, and there was a suspended solids level were over 2.5 times the permitted levels.

It was only after United Utilities bosses were informed they had failed this check that they told the Environment Agency that on June 11 and 12 2008 their pumps had failed causing the sludge to overflow.

Treatment Manager and duty abstractor at the treatment works Wayne Tapper told the court that on June 11 at 1.15pm the clarification sludge pump failed. As at all treatment works a stand-by pump immediately started-up.

He said: “As soon as the stand-by pump kicked in we set up a mobile diesel pump, just in case the stand-by pump failed.

He added: “Then the stand-by pump failed and we had to get the diesel pump going.”

The court heard that as soon as the main pump failed they ordered a new pump which was due to arrive on the afternoon of June 12, however, between 6.30am and 7.30am on June 12 the mobile pump failed. It was then the sludge began to overflow into a drainage channel.

Prosecutor Neil Evans said after the hearing: “The overflowed sludge had actually got no further than the drain. It was so thick that it sat in the drain”

Meic Davies, acting Area Manager for the Environment Agency in North Wales said: "This was a serious breach of the consent which could have, under different circumstances, caused environmental damage to the stream.”