Water firm fined £145k

United Utilities has been ordered to pay more than £170,000 for illegally discharging partially treated sewage into the River Mersey.

In January 2010, sewage was released into the river through an unmonitored emergency overflow pipe when the company’s Liverpool wastewater treatment works was unable to treat all of the effluent coming into the site.

The firm was fined £145,000 and ordered to pay £28,428 costs by Liverpool Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to a string of environmental offences under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations, the Water Resources Act 1991 and the Environmental Permitting Regulations (England and Wales) 2010.

The company has since announced a £200 million investment to extend and further improve the works.

Tony Conway, United Utilities’ director of asset management, commented: “We reported the breach ourselves and have since done everything possible to put things right.”

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