Southern Water received a fine exceeding £7 million at Canterbury Crown Court for unlawfully discharging sewage into the sea off the Kent coast from 2019 to 2021.

The company admitted to 13 offenses at Medway Magistrates’ Court last April, involving sewage discharges at Margate and Broadstairs wastewater pumping stations during the mentioned period. The offenses were related to untreated sewage dumped into the sea and failure to promptly notify authorities about the discharges as required by its environmental permit.

One of the convictions was for not having a standby pump at Margate’s station from July 27, 2019, to October 4, 2020, which violated its permit terms. The sentencing occurred at Canterbury Crown Court over two days, resulting in a total fine of £7,127,083 imposed by Mr. Justice Johnson.

This penalty follows a previous fine of £90 million imposed on the company by the Environment Agency in 2021 for nearly 7,000 incidents of environmental violations in Hampshire, Kent, and Sussex.

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