During 2008 our regulated water business saw a slight increase in the number of category one, two and three pollution incidents, which relate to both water and wastewater operations, with one category one incident, ten category two incidents and 191 category three incidents.
Pollution incidents are defined as an impact on one or more of the following; air, land or water. Category one pollution incidents are the most severe category, where persistent and extensive effects on aquatic and/or terrestrial ecosystems occur. The category one incident occurred in June when a blocked sewer which normally transports sewage to the local wastewater treatment works caused raw sewage to discharge into Wiza Beck in Wigton, Cumbria. This discharge resulted in the death of fish and eels in the beck. In our Dwr Cymru Welsh Water operations there were no category one or two pollution incidents with 34 category three incidents reported.
The regulated water business was prosecuted for three offences in 2008. Each prosecution was for the discharge of sewage effluent into controlled waters and totalled £24,000 in fines and £4,735 in costs. We received no prosecutions for our Welsh Water activities during 2008.
Each of our wastewater treatment works has a ‘consent to discharge’ which must be met to remain compliant. These are linked primarily, but not exclusively, to biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), suspended solids (SS) and ammonia (NH3) concentrations. During 2008 the regulated water business had eight failing wastewater treatment works. This was a significant improvement on the 18 recorded for 2007 and also met our internal target of 13. In percentage terms the regulated business achieved 97.25% compliance for wastewater treatment works. This has decreased slightly from last year when we recorded 97.27% compliance.
In Scotland and Sofia, Bulgaria we achieved 100% compliance for the operation of wastewater treatment facilities on behalf of our clients.