South West Water has pleaded guilty to a string of pollution offences across Devon and Cornwall, including hundreds of illegal sewage spills into protected waters and repeated discharges onto a popular beach.
The prosecution, brought by the Environment Agency, concluded at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court this week with sentencing expected on 30 July 2026.
The company admitted 17 illegal discharge offences, including sewage spills and one charge of failing to take reasonable remedial action after a failure at a sewage pumping station.
The offences took place between January 2015 and July 2021 across five locations: Bodmin, Harlyn, Playing Place, Polperro and Plymouth.
At South West Water’s sewage works near Bodmin, there were 336 illegal spills in the seven years to March 2020.
Sewage was discharged into the River Camel, a special area of conservation and an important habitat for Atlantic salmon, bullhead and otters.
At Harlyn beach, untreated sewage was discharged 231 times between January 2016 and July 2021.
The beach is popular with locals and tourists, making the scale of the spills particularly damaging for public confidence as well as the local environment.
The court also heard about an incident at Hooe Lake Sewage Pumping Station near Plymouth in 2020.
A sewage discharge began on 28 August and continued for 88 hours until 1 September, running across the August Bank Holiday weekend.
Hooe Lake is a priority habitat because of its mudflats, open waters and plant species, and is also used for watersports.
Several further criminal charges relating to spills at Holywell Sewage Pumping Station were also before the court.
South West Water has already pleaded guilty to six charges linked to Holywell, which will be considered at a later date.
Clarissa Newell, Environment Manager for Devon and Cornwall at the Environment Agency, said: “Getting to this point and securing these guilty pleas was only possible thanks to years of thorough investigation and hard work by Environment Agency officers.”
She added: “Polluters must pay and the Environment Agency continues to do everything in its power to ensure that they do.”
South West Water was previously prosecuted in 2023 for 13 charges linked to offences between July 2016 and August 2020 and was fined £2.15m.
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