Premier Foods Group Limited, the UK’s largest food producer, has been fined £15,000 for exceeding legal limits in the amount of trade effluent it discharged into Severn Trent Water’s sewer system. The company has also been ordered to pay legal costs of £5,106.18.

The case was heard on Wednesday 19 December, at Worksop Magistrates Court, following prosecution by Severn Trent Water for breaches of the Water Industry Act 1991. On 29 November 2011 effluent discharged into the sewer by Premier Food Group Ltd at Worksop, was found to be 26 times above the permitted limit for chemical oxygen demand and 23 times the permitted limit for suspended solids.  

Simon Cocks, waste water services director for Severn Trent Water, commented:

“The limits we set to regulate trade discharges are calculated to ensure they do not adversely affect the capacity of our sewage works to efficiently treat sewage. So exceeding these limits is not only illegal; it can damage the sewage treatment process and risk causing harm to the environment.

“In addition, our customers are paying for damage to the sewer network and sewage works caused by these kind of incidents, so it’s important that we hold companies to account in appropriate cases and take action to recover costs where possible.”

“However, rather than having to take action in court, we would prefer to work together to prevent any breaches occurring in the first place’’.