Welsh Water fined for polluting water in Herefordshire
The Environment Agency found that the water firm broke conditions of an environmental permit at Clehonger Sewage Treatment Works seven times
Welsh Water must pay £36,000 for polluting water in Herefordshire.
The Environment Agency found that the water firm broke conditions of an environmental permit at Clehonger Sewage Treatment Works seven times in 2020 and 2021.
It exceeded the permitted levels of ammonia which it discharged into the Cage Brook - which is a tributary of the River Wye.
The firm was issued the fine of £24,000 at Kidderminster Magistrates Court on 11 July 2025 and was also ordered to pay costs of £11,835.86 and a surcharge of £181.
The court was told that officers from the Environment Agency were alerted to an issue following routine sampling results in November 2020.
The environmental permit states that Welsh Water must not discharge effluent containing more than 18 milligrams/litre of ammonia on more than 2 occasions in a 12-month period.
Results showed that in a 5 month period from 23 November 2020 to 17 April 2021 the limit had been exceeded 7 times ranging from 18.2 mg/l to 26.2 mg/l.
Officials from Welsh Water told the Environment Agency that the company was aware of additional loading coming into the site from a new development.
'Significant amount' spent on infrastructure
In mitigation, Welsh Water said that it had spent a significant amount of money to improve the infrastructure at the site. Adding, that since this incident there had been no further issues or breaches of permit condition.
Adam Shipp, a Senior Environment Officer at the Environment Agency who led the investigation, said: "Incidents like this are preventable and are completely unacceptable, particularly at a time when the need to protect the water environment for wildlife and people has never been greater.
"Water companies are aware that their activities have the potential for serious environmental impacts, and they know that we will take action when they cause pollution.
"The Environment Agency does and will continue to hold water companies to account when their performance falls below acceptable standards."
'We pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity'
A Welsh Water spokesperson said: "We pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to the charge, which related to sample readings for ammonia in final effluent at Clehonger Wastewater Treatment Works that exceeded our permitted limit.
"These were recorded by us between November 2020 and April 2021, and reported to the Environment Agency. The site was compliant with its permit before this period and it has been compliant since.
"The court accepted there was no evidence of environmental harm.
"The root cause of the exceedances was over-loading of the works following new residential developments.
"We took what action we could to ensure improved capacity at the works was funded by the developers, by appearing before a Planning Inspector to explain the impacts of the original proposal.
"We upgraded the wastewater treatment works at a cost that was £1million in excess of the funding received from the developers."