Investigations by the Environment Agency into water pollution has brought a contribution of £2.1 million from Severn Trent Water Limited to an environmental charity.
Trent Rivers Trust will be using the money to improve several environmental projects in the region.
The details of the incidents are included in the latest list of Enforcement Undertakings (EU) published on .gov.uk.
An Enforcement Undertaking is available to the Environment Agency as a sanction for dealing with some environmental offences.
They can be offered for offences including polluting rivers, breaching permit conditions designed to protect communities, or failing to register and comply with recycling/recovery obligations.
The Environment Agency has agreed EUs for the following incidents.
- £1m for the discharge of poor-quality final effluent from Sutton-in-Ashfield sewage treatment works into the River Maun, Nottinghamshire, on 13 December 2020.
The company reported the spill one day after it occurred and worked to repair damage by importing healthy sludge to restore treatment processes.
- £600,000 for an unauthorised discharge of sewage from Alfreton Highfields Sewage Pumping Station, Derbyshire into Oakerthorpe Brook on 28 July 2021.
The spill caused considerable ecological damage to the brook for a distance of at least 2.5km.
- £500,000 for three exceedances of bio-oxygen demand at Marehay Wastewater Treatment Works in Denby, Ripley, Derbyshire between 9 October 2021 and 3 May 2022.
Geoff Craig, Environment Manager for the Environment Agency, said:
“Protecting the environment in the East Midlands and taking action against those that damage or threaten this is our utmost priority.
“While we will always take forward prosecutions in the most serious cases, Enforcement Undertakings are an effective enforcement tool to allow companies to put things right.
“They allow polluters to correct and restore the harm caused to the environment and prevent repeat incidents by improving their procedures.
“This helps ensure future compliance with environmental requirements.
“If people suspect water pollution incidents they should call our 24/7 hotline on 0800 807060.”
Matt Easter, chief executive officer of Trent Rivers Trust, said:
“Whilst we would rather these incidents did not occur in the first place, our focus lies on ensuring that any Enforcement Undertaking funds are well spent in the impacted catchments.
“A key issue across all affected watercourses is that these rivers are unnatural, significantly affected by barriers and prone to pollution.
“We are, therefore, going to restore habitat, improve water quality and remove barriers. This is so our rivers become more resilient and wildlife can come back stronger.
“Encouragingly, initial surveys on one of the affected watercourses have already shown that salmon are present in the lower catchment, so ensuring they can move further up the catchment to spawning grounds. Thus will be an integral part of the project.
“With all these enforcement undertakings, we have a chance to leave the catchments in a much better position than before any incident, and not only restore our rivers, but enhance them.”
