WATER chiefs have carried out a review of its sewage operations after it allowed effluent to leak into a Hastingwood brook.
Thames Water Utilities, which has been fined £6,000 for the pollution offence, hopes its efforts will ensure that such an incident does not happen again.
The company pleaded guilty at Epping magistrates court to polluting Shonks Brook when sewage leaked in from an overflow pipe and from a manhole cover where it flowed into the surface water drainage system.
The Environment Agency said about half a kilometre of the brook was covered
by sewage and sewage fungus following the leak which happened in November 1997.
A member of the public alerted the Environment Agency to the incident, caused by a power failure and a blocked sewer at the Wynters Brook Pumping Station.
Power to the pumping station was switched off during a routine inspection and was not switched back on again, the Environment Agency said.
The prosecution, which also saw Thames Water Utilities ordered to pay £700 legal costs to the Environment Agency, was brought under the Water Resources Act 1991.
Thames Water Utilities environmental protection officer Karen Douse said: "Sewerage companies must ensure that there are proper measures in place to prevent escapes of sewage to local rivers.
"This incident could have been so easily avoided."
Thames Water spokeswoman Cathy Little said the company regretted the incident.
She added: "Fortunately there were no fish deaths and that stretch was cleaned up as soon as possible by Thames Water after the incident.
"We take our responsibilities with regard to the carriage and treatment of sewerage effluent very seriously and as a result of that incident we have undertaken a review of our maintenance and monitoring systems to try to ensure that an incident like this does not happen again."
The Environment Agency has introduced a free emergency hotline number -- 0800 807060 -- to make it easier for people to alert it to environmental incidents.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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