South West Water has been ordered to pay nearly £20,000 in fines and costs for polluting a stream in Cornwall.
The company pleaded guilty in court to discharging poor quality sewage effluent into a tributary near Bude, which created enough fungus to resemble "a shagpile carpet".
The case was brought by the Environment Agency after it carried out a routine inspection of the Launcells Sewage Treatment Works.
Officers discovered signs of poor maintenance including sewage fungus in an inspection chamber, pipe and filter bed outlet.
Sewage fungus was also seen growing in the receiving watercourse for a distance of approximately 170m to the Grimscott Stream. In places the sewage fungus was as thick as a "shagpile carpet", officers said.
As a result, the Sewage Treatment Works failed its inspection. A re-inspection took place in April 2009 and the works passed. However, the court heard it only passed because a SWW worker had manually removed sewage fungus from the watercourse using a brush prior to the re-inspection.
The Agency was only told of this 18 months later when SWW prepared its report for the magistrates.
South West Water was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £7,747.63 costs. A company spokesman apologised for the pollution.
Western Morning News
