A ‘CATALOGUE’ of failings which resulted in sewage seeping into Barnsley’s watercourses for thousands of hours last year could see a huge fine imposed on a utilities firm.
Data from the Environment Agency shows sewage from storm overflows was flowing into water bodies in Barnsley for 26,302 hours in 2023, during 3,736 spills.
This was up from 13,228 hours recorded the year before, when there were 2,715 spills in the town.
Yorkshire Water - which last month was blasted by the Environment Agency - now faces a £47m fine from industry regulator Ofwat following its largest ever investigation into companies’ wrongdoing.
Thames Water and Northumbrian Water have also been named on Ofwat’s hitlist following the probe.
Ofwat chief executive David Black added: “We uncovered a catalogue of failures in how they ran their sewage works and this resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows.
“Our investigation has shown how they routinely released sewage into our rivers and seas, rather than ensuring that this only happens in exceptional circumstances as the law intends.”
The investigation confirmed the scale of the issue in Barnsley, which saw Darton’s stretch of the River Dearne endure 90 spills for a total of 1,362 hours - the equivalent of 57 days non-stop.
Meanwhile in Lundwood, an overflow also spilled a total of 90 times for a total of 1,114 hours, the equivalent of around 46 days non-stop.
In Pilley, almost 150 incidents occurred for a total of 2,135 hours whilst in Hoylandswaine and Cawthorne the sewage spilled for more than 3,000 hours combined.
Contained within the untreated effluent is human waste, wet wipes and sanitary products, which pose a serious risk to local wildlife.
Charles Watson, from campaign group River Action, said: “Last year sewage was discharged across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales more than 596,666 times.
“That’s over 1,600 times a day and with many of these discharges being illegal, this situation is completely unacceptable.
“Thankfully the water regulator, for so long toothless, is finally waking up to the scale of the public’s outrage and we are starting to see some meaningful penalties being imposed upon the worst offenders.
“However, the water industry was able to find more than £11bn to hand out to their shareholders in dividends last year, which gives context to these fines.
“Until the ability of these polluting companies to hand out so much cash is severely curtailed, pollution will continue to be a highly profitable activity with inadequate incentives for the water companies to fix their creaking infrastructure and stop filling our rivers with raw sewage.”
Yorkshire Water said the increase is due to the wet weather experienced over the last 12 months, but confirmed a number of projects totalling £13.4m are underway in Barnsley to reduce discharges.
These include a £2.4m scheme in Cudworth to reduce storm overflows into the River Dearne.
The investment is expected to reduce the number of discharges from the storm overflow at Small Bridge Dike by 60 per cent.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We are disappointed with Ofwat’s response to their investigation into our wastewater treatment networks.
“Since the start of this process in November 2021, we have co-operated fully with the investigation and we will continue to seek clarity.
“We and our customers care deeply about rivers’ health and we want to provide reassurance that we have already taken considerable action to improve.”
