Yorkshire Water has paid a record £1million to environmental and wildlife charities after polluting a watercourse, following an investigation by the Environment Agency.

The company breached its environmental permit with an unauthorised sewage discharge from Hookstone Road combined sewer overflow, which polluted Hookstone Beck, in Harrogate, killing 1,500 fish.

It submitted an Enforcement Undertaking to the Environment Agency proposing a charitable donation totalling £1million which is the largest ever accepted by the agency.

An Enforcement Undertaking is a voluntary offer made by companies or individuals to make amends for their offending, and usually includes a payment to an environmental charity to carry out environmental improvements in the local area.

It has paid £500,000 to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and £500,000 to Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust.

It has also completed a significant £1.85million sewer network upgrade in the area as part of the enforcement terms.

Claire Barrow, the Environment Agency area environment manager in Yorkshire, said: “We always consider enforcement options on a case-by-case basis and Enforcement Undertakings allow companies to put right what went wrong and contribute to environmental improvements and outcomes.

“This significant £1million civil sanction will be invested back into the local area to enhance the environment for people and wildlife.

“The Environment Agency investigation also led to significant improvements to the sewer network in this area to prevent repeat incidents and ensure future compliance with environmental requirements.”

Hookstone Road combined sewer overflow has an environmental permit which allows a discharge into the beck when the storm sewage facility is full due to rainfall or snow melt.

On August 31, 2016, the Environment Agency received a report of pollution in Hookstone Beck.

Investigating officers traced it to the overflow at Hookstone Road, which had blocked and not alerted Yorkshire Water due to faulty telemetry equipment.

 The investigation found that almost 1,500 fish had been killed and water quality affected for 2.5km downstream.

A series of further blockages and discharges took place in the following months.

A detailed Environment Agency investigation was undertaken, this included the use of devices called sondes in the river to measure the impact of ammonia and an assessment of Event Duration Monitoring data that revealed the company was in breach of its environmental permit.

As part of the Enforcement Undertaking requirements Yorkshire Water has already carried out a significant £1.85m improvement and rebuilding project to the overflow and surrounding sewer network to bring it back into compliance with its environmental permit.

Water Minister Robbie Moore said: “This record penalty paid by Yorkshire Water demonstrates that those who damage our natural environment will be held to account.

“Our Plan for Water is all about delivering more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement right across the water sector - and this penalty for Yorkshire Water demonstrates that we will take robust action when required.

“Our Plan includes scrapping the cap on civil penalties by introducing unlimited fines and significantly broadening their scope to target a much wider range of offences – from breaches of storm overflow permits to the reckless disposal of hazardous waste.”

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust will use the payment in North Yorkshire for new and improved homes for wildlife, mainly on their wetland reserves.

This includes reprofiling Ripon City Wetlands to create muddy shores for wading birds, safe breeding islands and removing invasive plants, as well as replacing equipment.

Habitat improvements on the River Tutt at Staveley nature reserve will also help to store flood water, protecting communities downstream.

Recommended reading:

Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust will use the payment to develop a programme of improvements along the River Nidd.

Working through the catchment partnership - Dales to Vales Rivers Network - with local communities, other organisations and building on existing work with citizen scientists.

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A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “This incident was initially caused by a plank of wood that shouldn’t have been in the sewer network and took place seven years ago.

"We acted quickly to stop the pollution but understand incidents of this kind are distressing and when things go wrong, we understand we have a responsibility to make it right and to prevent these things from happening at all.

"Unfortunately, it has taken seven years to reach an agreement with the Environment Agency to donate funds to local wildlife charities that will directly benefit Yorkshire, but we are pleased to have finally provided funds to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust.

“We’re committed to protecting the environment and our procedures and processes have evolved significantly since 2016, contributing to a halving of pollution incidents in the last five years. Following this incident in 2016, we spent almost £2m to improve the sewer network in the area to prevent repeat issues.”