United Utilities fined over Liverpool Bay sewage leak

Oct 21 2009 by Matt Hurst, Birkenhead News

UNITED Utilities was fined £29,000 after allowing raw sewage into Liverpool Bay.

Between January 8 and 9 2008, 13,000 cubic metres of effluent was pumped from North Wirral Waste Water Treatment Works over 12 hours.

Wirral Magistrates Court heard on Thursday that alarms went off in the treatment plant but the company failed to respond.

It also failed to notify the Environment Agency (EA) of the accident until 12 days after the event.

Having pledged to review procedures, a second incident on June 27 saw 9,500 cubic metres allowed into the bay.

The same alarms were generated and again nothing happened.

Sue Sinnott, EA officer said: “The failure to provide treatment to the sewage in both these incidents means bacteria will have been present with the potential to impact on shellfish beds and affect bathing water quality.

“Inadequate response to alarms is serious failings by the company.”

A spokesman from United Utilities said: “We sincerely regret these discharge incidents.

“We have carried out additional staff training to prevent these types of mistakes happening again”.