\n The Environment Agency launched an investigation after Yorkshire Water, which has its headquarters in Bradford, polluted Pools Brook Country Park stream three times in less than a year, with the first incident in October 2018.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yorkshire Water appeared at Derby Crown Court for sentencing today for three separate sewage spills at the 165-acre park in Staveley, Chesterfield and was fined \u00a3733,333.\n<\/p>\n
\n The company had previously pleaded guilty to all three offences in January 2024.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said, since the last incident in 2019, \u00a32.5 million has been invested to relocate the two sewers involved, and it has \u201clooked carefully at our company processes to enhance these where necessary\u201d to prevent something similar happening again.\n<\/p>\n
\n Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said: “This repeated sewage pollution by Yorkshire Water is appalling and the \u00a3733k fine handed out today sends a clear message that polluters will pay.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The stream at Pools Brook Country Park was also polluted on October 1, 2018 (Image: Environment Agency)\n<\/p>\n
Various fish killed in pond<\/p>\n
\n The first pollution incident happened on October 1, 2018, when a rising main sewer pipe from Pools Brook sewage pumping station burst.\n<\/p>\n
\n This caused untreated sewage to spill from a manhole into the stream that runs through the country park and a pond there, and then into the River Doe Lea.\n<\/p>\n
\n Various fish in the country park pond were killed \u2013 including tench, pike and roach \u2013 along with dead river insects.\n<\/p>\n
\n The impact on water quality stretched for more than 600 metres.\n<\/p>\n
\n The failure of the rising main was due to severe corrosion.\n<\/p>\n
Sewage spillage twice<\/p>\n
\n The second pollution incident, on February 27, 2019, was caused by a blockage in the plastic foul sewer pipe, leading to a pressure build-up in a joint of the pipe.\n<\/p>\n
\n This foul sewer pipe was suspended on chains inside a surface water sewer pipe, which would normally only contain rainwater and runs into the Pools Brook stream.\n<\/p>\n
\n The blockage \u2013 mainly wet wipes – eventually caused a leak of sewage into the surface water pipe, which entered the stream.\n<\/p>\n
\n The third pollution incident, which happened on August 7, 2019, was caused by a failure of a joint coupling in the same plastic foul sewer pipe, but in a different location.\n<\/p>\n
\n This again led to sewage spilling into the surface water pipe and entering the Pools Brook stream.\n<\/p>\n
\n There was no evidence of fish being affected in both instances, but the impact on water quality was evident over 700 metres on the first occasion and more than 600 metres on the second.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yorkshire Water would not attend an interview for any of the three incidents.\n<\/p>\n
\n The state of the stream at Pools Brook Country Park, in Staveley, Chesterfield after a sewage spill on February 27, 2019 (Image: Environment Agency)\n<\/p>\n
Yorkshire Water actions were ‘unacceptable’<\/p>\n
\n Chair of the Environment Agency, Alan Lovell said: \u201cPolluting the same stream three times in less than a year is unacceptable and we\u2019re pleased Yorkshire Water has now been dealt with by the courts following our investigation.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe expect full compliance and are committed to taking robust enforcement action where we see serious breaches.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Full Yorkshire Water statement<\/p>\n
\n A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: \u201cIn the seven years since the last incident at Pools Brook occurred, we\u2019ve invested over \u00a32.5 million to relocate the two sewers involved in these incidents as well as identifying key learnings which have been embedded across our business.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe have also looked carefully at our company processes to enhance these where necessary so we make sure a similar incident doesn\u2019t happen again.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cProtecting the environment is a key part of what we aim to do, so when incidents occur that fall far below our normal standards we ensure they are thoroughly investigated and put actions in place to make sure they don\u2019t happen again.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cNo pollution incident is ever acceptable.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe want to apologise for the impact the incidents at Pools Brook had in 2018 and 2019 which were the result of an inadequate external protective coating being applied to one of the sewers and wet wipes building up and causing blockages in the other sewer.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cLooking ahead, we are underway with our largest ever environmental investment programme where we are investing \u00a38.3 billion before 2030 – an average of \u00a33.2 million every day \u2013 to improve service levels, reduce any negative impact on the environment, and make the water infrastructure in Yorkshire fit for the future.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis reflects our long-term commitment to delivering better service for our customers, communities, and the environment across our region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Environment Agency launched an investigation after Yorkshire Water, which has its headquarters in Bradford, polluted Pools Brook…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-441768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}