Welsh Water fine cut from £1.35m to £120,000 after appeal

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water has had a £1.35million fine reduced to £120,000 after winning an appeal at Caernarfon Crown Court.

The not-for-profit company, based in Nelson, was fined in May for failing to properly monitor water quality at around 300 treatment sites. It had admitted 15 charges covering more than 800 offences committed during 2020 and 2021.

Earlier this month, judges agreed the original penalty was excessive after the company challenged the decision.

Since 2010, Welsh Water has been required to carry out its own monitoring of treated wastewater released from sewage and water treatment works, and to report the results to Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

NRW said the company’s 2020 report showed a “noticeable deterioration” in data quality compared with previous years, with more than 600 breaches recorded across Wales and Herefordshire. The regulator also found missing and incomplete samples, meaning the full environmental impact could not be assessed.

Welsh Water said an internal restructure, IT problems and the impact of the pandemic were behind the failures, but NRW described the issues as “inadequacies” in the company’s processes.

A spokesperson for Welsh Water said: “We are pleased our appeal was successful. There was no identified environmental harm associated with this case, and the monitoring failures represented a very small number – around 1% – of examples in a programme involving tens of thousands of submissions each year.

“Nonetheless, we recognised our compliance fell short during 2020/21, a time when so much was impacted by Covid. We entered a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and apologised at the hearing.

“As a not-for-profit company, our only source of income is from customers. By minimising the amount spent on fines, we maximise our investment in services and protecting the environment.”