THAMES WATER FINED RECORD-BREAKING £1M
6 Jan 2016 South East Muhammad Aldalou
Thames Water Utilities has been ordered to pay a record-breaking £1m fine after polluting a canal in Hertfordshire.
This is the highest ever fine for a water company in a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency.
The case was brought after Thames Water caused repeated discharges of polluting matter from Tring STW (Sewage Treatment Works) to enter the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal in Hertfordshire between July 2012 and April 2013.
In May, Thames Water pleaded guilty before Watford Magistrates Court to two charges under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.
On 4 January, the company was ordered to pay a fine of £1m, costs of £18,113.08 and a victim surcharge of £120.
Judge Andrew Bright said: "The time has now come for the courts to make clear that very large organisations such as [Thames Water] really must bring about the reforms and improvements for which they say they are striving because if they do not the sentences passed upon them for environmental offences will be sufficiently severe to have a significant impact on their finances."
