Environmental improvements in the River Tame catchment are to receive £517,000 after the Environment Agency secured a payment from United Utilities over sewage discharge breaches.
The agency said three permit breaches had led to a substantial amount of sewage being discharged into the River Tame. United Utilities made an Enforcement Undertaking offer after a detailed investigation into incidents which the agency said occurred because of a faulty tank.
The Environment Agency said the fault was subsequently fixed, and that the company had also agreed to reimburse all of the agency’s investigation costs. The payment will go to Mersey Rivers Trust to improve the environmental health of rivers in the region.
The agreement forms part of £8.5 million paid by water companies into environmental restoration projects across the country. The Environment Agency described that national total as a record and said it represented a 47% increase on the previous year.
Enforcement Undertakings are legally binding agreements between the Environment Agency and companies that have breached environmental regulations. They require steps to prevent repeat offending and usually include a payment to an environmental charity for local improvements.
The agency said it had completed more than 10,000 inspections of water company assets over the past year, including 1,855 at premises owned by United Utilities. Those inspections covered assets such as treatment works, sewage pumping stations and storm overflows.