Welsh Water fined £1.35m over sewage discharge monitoring
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A water company has been fined £1.35m over the monitoring of its sewage discharges dating back four years.
Welsh Water was also ordered to pay £70,237.70 in costs after pleading guilty to over 800 breaches of its discharge permits.
Water companies have to hold an environmental permit to dispose of domestic sewage, and have been required to self-monitor their discharges since 2010.
Welsh Water submitted its own discharge data to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) as part of its annual report.
The non-compliances, reported in the firm's 2020 and 2021 reports, were summarised into 18 offences.
The discharges were spread across 300 sites throughout Wales and Herefordshire.
Welsh Water pleaded guilty to 15 of the 18 charges on 16 October, with the remaining charges accepted on 17 December.
Over 600 of the breaches were recorded in the 2020 report, which Welsh Water said were mainly caused by internal restructuring and the effects of the COVID pandemic.
In 2023, the water company had its status downgraded over a rise in pollution incidents.
Sian Williams, head of operations at Natural Resources Wales, said the case highlighted "inadequacies in the processes" at Welsh Water.
Ms Williams said NRW believe the "failings shown" could have been avoided if "better contingency planning" had been in place.
"This is a stark warning to the company that we will not hesitate to use our enforcement powers to secure the improvements we expect to see," she added.
A Welsh Water spokesperson told Sky News it had a "strong record of compliance" with its monitoring obligations before and after the period in question.
"No sites were left unmonitored during this time, but the unique circumstances during 2020/21 caused significant challenges and disruption to our operations," they said.
While there had been "no identified environmental harm associated with this case" the company recognised its compliance "fell short" in 2020 and 2021 and had entered a guilty plea "at the earliest opportunity".
"Welsh Water will continue to work closely with our regulators to ensure that we deliver on our two main priorities, the best possible service to our customers and protecting the environment," the spokesperson added.
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