Displaying items by tag: construction industry

A firm that provides environmental services for the construction industry has been fined a whopping £47,000 for making illegal discharges into the Severn Trent Water sewer network.  The company has also been ordered to pay legal costs of nearly £14,000.

This is the second time that West Bromwich based Arrow Environmental Services Limited has been successfully prosecuted by Severn Trent Water and yet even after the legal notice was served, the company has been found to have committed further offences of discharging effluent above the legal limits into the sewer network.

Martin Kane, chief engineer for Severn Trent Water, commented: “We’re really disappointed to have had to prosecute Arrow Environmental Services Limited once again.  We’re even more disappointed that this is not the end of the story and that we’re now considering further prosecutions based on yet more failures from them.  For a company that advertise themselves as having “a fresh approach to environmental issues” with a “state-of-the-art plant” which has “helped to minimise their environmental impact”, we’d expect better.   It’s also disappointing that this is a company priding itself on working for public service sector organisations and local Government, as well as some of the UK's best known brand names, which include the construction and demolition industry.

“Our customers pay for damage to the sewer network and the treatment works, so it’s important that we prosecute offenders in appropriate cases and take action to recover costs where possible.

“The limits we set to regulate trade discharges are calculated to make sure they don’t adversely affect the ability of our sewage works to efficiently treat sewage.  So exceeding this consent is not only illegal, it can also damage the sewage treatment process and so risk causing harm to the environment.”

The case against Arrow Environmental Services Limited was heard yesterday (Tuesday 19 May) at Wolverhampton Crown Court, following a prosecution brought by Severn Trent Water for a breach of the Water Industry Act 1991.  The case was referred to the Crown Court as the maximum fine that could be imposed by the Magistrate’s Court was deemed to be insufficient when the case was heard there earlier this month.  It is a criminal offence under section 121 of the Act to discharge trade effluent into the public sewerage network in breach of the consent set out by the sewerage undertaker.

Between 5 February 2014 and 25 October 2015, Arrow Environmental Services Limited of Exchange Works, Kelvin Way, West Bromwich, discharged trade effluent into a public sewer which was above permitted limits on ten separate occurrences.

The judge found that Arrow Environmental Services Limited had taken "somewhat of a cavalier" approach, in particular in respect of a phenol failure and as such he found that some of the failures were reckless and some of them negligent.

Martin added: “Rather than having to take action in court, we’d prefer to work together with businesses to prevent any breaches occurring in the first place.  If anyone working in this area has any concerns, we’d be more than happy to help – please come and talk to us.”

Severn Trent Water serves more than 4.2 million homes and business customers and has the lowest combined water and waste water bills in England and Wales.