South West Water in court over alleged environmental offences

South West Water appeared in court yesterday (April 17)  for a series of alleged offences over a six year period.

The water company faces a series of alleged offences between 2015 and 2021 with alleged offences having taken place across Cornwall and Plymouth.

The company appeared before Plymouth Magistrates’ Court today where it faced 30 charges relating to illegal water discharge activities and breaches of environmental permits. 

The charges relate to waste water treatment works, sewage pumping stations and sewer networks at locations across Cornwall and Plymouth.

The Environment Agency alleges that SWW is responsible for many hundreds of illegal discharges at seven sites across Cornwall and one in Plymouth over a six- year period.

More than 200,000 pages of evidence were submitted to the court by the Environment Agency relating to offences over a six-year period.  

Event Duration Monitoring Data (‘EDM’) was also used by the Environment Agency to allege that South West Water has spilled illegally from multiple sites. 

Proceedings have now been adjourned to 3 July this year for pleas to be entered.

South West Water told the Gazette they could not comment at this stage.