Severn Trent have been fined over £2 million for "recklessly" allowing raw sewage to enter the River Trent in 2020. The Environment Agency said that the company discharged the equivalent of 10 olympic sized swimming pools.

Severn Trent previously pleaded guilty to two offences relating to sewage being discharged from Severn Trents Strongford site into the River Trent. Namely between 13 Feb and 20 Feb 2020 and between November 2019 and 20 February 2020.

Approximately 700 to 1000 litres of sewage per second went into the storm tanks and from there it was discharged into the River Trent. The incident happened due to screw pumps at the inlet into Strongford failing. 

Over the five days between 14 February and 19 February 260 million litres was discharged due to the site not meeting its permitted flow to full treatment limit. This is the equivalent of 10 olympic sized swimming pools  

The court heard that under normal circumstances the amount of untreated sewage entering the watercourse would have a detrimental effect and a similar previous incident had led to a major fish kill. However due to high water levels due to Storm Ciara and Storm Denis Severn Trent report that no evidence has been seen of any environmental impacts.

Severn Trent pleaded guilty to two offences relating to sewage being discharged from the Strongford site into the River Trent (Google).

District Judge Kevin Grego told the court: "The risk set out above was real. The amount of untreated sewage over more than five days flowing into the water system was enormous. 

"Those who live in the affected area and pay Severn Trent Water to provide clean drinking water and safely treat sewage would not consider it to be otherwise. But for the effects of the two named storms, I have no doubt that there was a very real risk of the type of harm described in category one of the guidelines."

In handing down his judgement the district judge said he must take into account the major aggravating factor of similar offending and due to Severn Trent being a large organisation the fine would be multiplied two and a half times. Therefore due to the offences the total fine came to £2,070,000 plus costs of £16,476.67 and a victim's surcharge of £181.

Adam Shipp, a Senior Environment Officer at the Environment Agency and who led the investigation, said: "Severn Trent were fortunate that this incident did not cause a catastrophic pollution in the Trent as the river already had high flows when the discharge occurred. 

"Our investigation showed that their contingency plans were woefully inadequate with a major pump being out of action for 52 days prior to the incident. Even though Severn Trent knew Storm Clara and Storm Dennis were about to arrive they did not think to proactively source alternative pumps and get them to site. 

"When the second of the three pumps failed it made sourcing and installing a replacement pump very difficult and as a consequence the works was not properly functioning for another five days and eight hours."

"This is not the sort of response we would expect to see from a professional multi-national company and as a consequence they have now put in place on site measures to ensure that an incident like this does not happen again."

A Severn Trent spokesperson said: "We're sorry for the local site issues that led to this incident four years ago. We've accepted full responsibility and regret the course of events that led to this isolated issue.

"Throughout the investigation we've been fully open and transparent with the Environment Agency. Lessons have been learnt and action taken to address the local site issues and we'll continue to implement our wastewater recycling management system which operates to the highest standards of compliance.''

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READ MORE: National retailer to close huge Stoke-on-Trent store this weekend 

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