The company violated its environmental permit with two unpermitted sewage discharges from a rising main at Hemsworth Water Park, Hoyle Mill Lane Sewage Pumping Station, which contaminated Hoyle Mill Stream in Wakefield, and an unauthorized sewage discharge from Bellhouse Way Sewage Pumping Station, which polluted Holgate Beck in York.
It offered the Environment Agency two enforcement undertakings, one for £150,000 for the Holgate Beck incident and the other for £250,000 for the Hoyle Mill Stream, both of which have now been approved.
A voluntary offer to make amends for their wrongdoing, known as a “enforcement undertaking,” is offered by businesses and people.
Typically, this offer includes a gift to a wildlife charity that will be used to carry out environmental improvements in the community.
In cases of extreme urgency—which do not involve storms and torrential rain—the Bellhouse Way Sewage Pumping Station is authorized by the Environment Agency to release sewage into Holgate Beck.
It occasionally released sewage at the beginning of April 2018 as a result of an electrical issue with the primary pump and an obstruction with the backup pump.
The pumping station’s alarm was set off, but because it happened during a period of severe rain, it wasn’t distinguished from other assets that are permitted to discharge under storm circumstances.
Yorkshire Water has enhanced its monitoring systems so that assets that are only authorised to discharge in an emergency are given a code to ensure they are always checked as part of the Enforcement Undertaking requirements.
670 assets in the county have been given this code.
In July 2020, a rising main at the Hoyle Mill Road Sewage Pumping Station ruptured, releasing raw sewage into the Hoyle Mill Stream, visually contaminating the Beck for 2.75 km, and negatively affecting water quality.
On August 3, a rising main repair that had been attempted to work properly failed, causing more raw sewage to be released into the Beck.
After more research, it was discovered that the pipe had considerable corrosion, and the repair was insufficient to maintain the pressure.
At the end of the previous year, Yorkshire Water completely replaced the rising main as part of the Enforcement Undertaking.
Environment Agency Area Environment Manager Martin Christmas said:
We are holding water firms more accountable than ever, and while we will always pursue criminal charges in the most egregious situations, enforcement undertakings are a useful instrument for forcing businesses to make amends and support environmental reforms.
By enhancing their processes, they enable polluters to undo the damage they’ve done to the environment, prevent it from happening again, and help secure future adherence to environmental regulations.
Yorkshire Water has made substantial changes to its monitoring system and finished repairs to its assets as part of the civil penalties, in addition to giving the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust gifts of £400,000 that will have a large positive impact on the environment.
The money will be put to use by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on projects like its Askham Bog, River Foss, and Living Went programs that aim to improve the environment.
Following Environment Agency prosecutions, water corporations received record fines totalling more than £100 million last year, demonstrating that polluters will pay for environmental harm.
Most recently, Yorkshire Water was fined £150,000 at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on September 8, 2021, for a pollution incident at Potteric Carr Nature Reserve, and £233,000 on January 28, 2022, at Leeds Crown Court for a pollution incident at Tong Beck that occurred in November 2017.
They entered into an Enforcement Undertaking with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust in February of this year and paid them £300,000 after it violated its environmental permit due to an unauthorized discharge from its Garforth Storm Tanks.