Thames Water face unlimited fine over Wandle pollution

Thames Water's pollution of the Wandle last Autumn has been referred up to Croydon Crown Court after local magistrates in Sutton decided that the incident deserved a more severe punishment than the maximum £20,000 fine they were able to impose.

Two tonnes of dead fish had to be extracted from the Wandle following the spillage of 1,600 litres of hydrochloric acid (bleach) into the river last year. Fortunately, no lasting damage was done to the river and after remedial works and extra investment the Wandle is again thriving.

The company now faces an unlimited fine; which is right except even though the people who ultimately pay for this criminal negligence are you and me. Thames Water behaved appallingly over this incident - not only by letting the acid escape in the first place but then trying to cover up their error by tightening security and putting up new signage before the Environment Agency had arrived to find out exactly what happened. And yes, they have spent over £500,000 rectifying the damage but that doesn't erase the original error.

I write regularly about issues affecting the Wandle: you can read my news stories about the river at www.stuartking.net/blog/wandle.htm