Water company fined £146,000

A Midlands utilities company was fined £146,000 and ordered to pay £10,676 in costs for polluting a Northamptonshire brook with sewage. The pollution was caused by various failures at a sewage pumping station. A lack of maintenance resulted in the pumps stopping pumping after they became air-locked, causing sewage to back up in a storage tank. This then overflowed into the nearby brook. Alarms which should have alerted staff to the problem failed to sound.