Taylor Wimpey UK has been fined £300,000 after construction debris blocked a sewer and sent raw sewage spilling into a County Durham stream.
The pollution entered a tributary of Shotton Beck while the developer was building new homes at Eden Gardens in Sedgefield in September 2019. The discharge included red-coloured liquid thought to be blood-contaminated effluent from a nearby abattoir.
Taylor Wimpey pleaded guilty in July 2023 to polluting the waterway and was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on 9 July. It was also ordered to pay costs and a victim surcharge totalling £11,042.10.
Sentencing was delayed by a trial relating to a separate contested charge. The company was acquitted of that offence last month.
The court heard that construction debris had fallen through a manhole and blocked the sewer. The blockage caused the sewer to burst with sewage flowing into the stream and across the construction site.
New manhole chambers had been poorly built and left without protective fencing. Construction traffic then caused further damage to the chambers.
Taylor Wimpey had applied to Northumbrian Water to construct new sewers and divert an existing sewer as part of the housing development. By mid-2019 the diverted sewer was carrying sewage through the site despite the necessary legal agreements not being finalised.
Northumbrian Water attended the development on 4 June 2019 after a bung used to seal a disused section of sewer became dislodged and stuck further along the line. Sewage then flooded from a manhole and across the site.
Following that incident the Environment Agency and Northumbrian Water advised the company about pollution prevention and the need to stop debris entering the sewer network.
However an Environment Agency officer carrying out a routine inspection on 17 September discovered sewage fungus on the bed of Shotton Beck. After finding no problems at the nearby Sewage Treatment Works he traced the pollution upstream to the Taylor Wimpey development.
Officers found sewage discharging from the sewer outside the site boundary. Photographs showed the stream turning red and sewage fungus was found at least 1.5km downstream.
The extent of the fungus indicated the sewer was likely to have been leaking for several days.
Rachael Caldwell, Area Environment Manager at the Environment Agency, said: “We expect companies to take their environmental responsibilities seriously and ensure they take steps to prevent pollution.
“This incident was preventable and caused real harm to the stream and the life it supports. Companies must stop pollution before it happens and when they fail we will act.
“We are determined to hold those who pollute our waterways to account and will not hesitate to take enforcement action.”
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