Published in the Portsmouth News on Friday 15th April 2011
A WATER firm has been fined £50,000 for polluting a harbour.
Southern Water admitted 36 illegal discharges into highly-protected Langstone Harbour over a five-month period.
At Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court yesterday the Worthing-based company pleaded guilty to letting unscreened sewage pour from an outfall pipe into the water at Eastney for the equivalent of 24 hours a day for more than 12 days.
Storm overflow pipes discharge directly into rivers or the sea when the level in the sewage system rises too high, often due to heavy rain.
These discharges are permitted by the Environment Agency under strict conditions.
Any sewage discharge must pass through a screening device and should be maintained and in full working order.
But Environment Agency officers discovered screening devices there were not working and effluent was being discharged unscreened between 4th November 2009 and 19th April 2010.
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