South West Water fined almost £8m for sewage spills in Cornwall and Plymouth
The water company previously admitted 18 charges relating to pollution incidents
Last updated 29th Sep 2026
South West Water have been fined almost £8m for illegal sewage spills over a six year period.
The water company previously admitted 18 pollution offences across Plymouth and Cornwall at Plymouth Magistrates' Court.
It followed an investigation by the Environment Agency into incidents between 2015 and 2021 in Bodmin, Harlyn, Playing Place and Polperro and Plymouth.
Seventeen of the charges related to illegal sewage discharge activities while one related to a failure at a sewage pumping statin.
Today South West Water was fined £7,867,733.
District Judge Jo Matson described the sewage spills as as "very significant."
She added that she had taken into account the changes South West Water has made since their previous sentencing in 2023 for pollution incidents in the region.
Judge Matson continued: "SWW as part of their improvements tell me they have adopted the wording “one pollution is too many”
"It goes without saying that must be the case.
"However, in this case there were hundreds of incidents of sewage spills onto our beaches and into our waterways and sea and untreated sewage gushed through the harbour wall into the harbour at Polperro on a bank holiday weekend.
"SWW need to make sure they carry their new mantra of “one pollution is too many” forward from now on to ensure that horrendous, very significant incidents of pollution such as these never happen again."
In a statement today the water company said it was investigating "£760 million to tackle stork overflows" and had "reduced spills by 17% in the last year alone."
It added that the proceedings related to "historic maters between 2015 and 2021 and the majority of the charges concerned the use of overflows in storm conditions."
"Significant improvements have been made across the sites concerned including a new treatment process at Scarletts Well in Bodmin, upgrades at Harlyn pumping station and the replacement of pumps at Halvarras pumping station, and work in the catchment to remove surface water and illegal connections into the network.
"We apologise for what happened in the past, and we remain focused on the future as we deliver record levels of investment to achieve cleaner rivers and seas across the South West by 2040, a decade ahead of national targets," it said.