Thames Water has been fined £380,000 and ordered to pay costs of £23,092 for discharges of untreated sewage between February and July 2013 from their Princess Risborough works into the Horsenden Stream in Buckinghamshire
Two Derbyshire-based manufacturing firms were fined a total of £290,000 and ordered to pay £16,000 costs for safety breaches resulting in cases of carpel tunnel syndrome and hand arm vibration syndrome to their employees. It was reported at Derby Crown Court that the employees were regularly exposed to hand arm vibration through the use of a range of vibratory tools in the assembly and servicing of crushers and screeners.
Yorkshire Water has been fined £1.1million for illegally discharging sewage that polluted the River Ouse near York. The sewage had overflowed into the river because of a pump failure at the treatment works.
At the time of the incident, when one of the pumps failed, the backup was not operational. It has been out of use for five months – a breach of the firm’s environmental permit.
With only two pumps working, sewage flowed into emergency storage tanks, filled them up, and approximately 6,000 cubic metres of sewage overflowed through an old outfall into the river, at a location where discharges are not permitted.
A national provider of utilities has been fined £2.6 million after an employee was killed when the, unsupported 2.4 metre deep, trench in which he laying ducting in collapsed on him. The Court heard that the company failed to adequately risk assess the works or control the way in which the excavation took place.