Jul 9, 2021
Southern Water fined record £90m for dumping raw sewage
Southern Water has been fined a record £90m for deliberately dumping billions of litres of untreated sewage into the sea near popular beaches and rivers over several years. The fine is more than four times the previous record of £20.3m in 2017 when Thames Water admitted to tipping 1.4bn litres of raw sewage into the river Thames in a case the judge ruled was "Borderline deliberate". Which supplies water and treats sewage for 4.7m people in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, had pleaded guilty to 6,971 illegal spills lasting 61,704 hours from 17 different sewage plants between 2010 and 2015. Southern Water has been told to pay the fine out of operating profits to protect consumers from facing higher bills. A separate investigation by Ofwat, the industry's financial regulator, which resulted in a £3m fine and a £123m payment to customers, has already found Southern Water had manipulated water samples and "Deliberately misreported data" for seven years until 2017 to avoid financial penalties.
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