Thames Water Utilities Limited (Thames Water) was fined £6000 at Basingstoke Magistrates Court for polluting the Bishopswood Stream in Tadley on or before 6 March 2011.The company was also ordered to pay the Prosecution costs of £7,293 and a victim surcharge of £15.The court heard how a blockage on a Thames Water public foul sewer caused sewage to discharge and overflow from an abandoned sewer into an inland freshwater pond and into the Bishopswood Stream. The sewage caused a dramatic deterioration in the downstream water quality and invertebrate community. A carpet of thick smelly sewage fungus spread downstream for 250 metres. During the investigation Environment Agency officers found that a sewage discharge due to a blocked public sewer had occurred in the same location in September 2010, however due to a lower water level in the pond it had not overflowed into the stream. On that occasion Thames Water did not find the blockage and source of the pollution. The company put only temporary bungs in place and failed to investigate potential future problems.
Thames Water Utilities ordered to pay over £13,000 for sewage pollution in Hampshire
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