It’s not been Interserve’s week. Having announced a £160m black hole associated with exiting the energy from waste market, Interserve Construction Ltd (ICL) has been fined £54,000 with £5,955 costs after admitting a single incident of discharging silt-laden water into a tributary of the River Rother in Burwash, East Sussex, on 1 October 2014.
ICL was contracted to South East Water over an 18-month period at the Crowhurst Bridge Water Treatment Works to improve South East Water’s ability to manage water treatment. The Environment Agency discovered a brown discharge downstream of the works after a member of the public reported the discoloured water.
Further investigations showed that the river was visibly but locally impacted on a temporary basis.
In mitigation it was stated that this was an isolated incident of 25 minutes’ duration, during an 18-month contract and that the company was of previous good character. There was no evidence that local wildlife was adversely affected.
David Willis, environment manager at the Environment Agency, said: “We take these incidents very seriously and do everything within our powers to safeguard the environment and people that may be affected.”
