A YEAR ago the Crediton Country Courier reported that a "stench of sewage" that had hung over Crediton for two weeks was the result of a failure at Crediton sewage treatment works, owned by South West Water.

On Monday, June 6, a year and a day after the problems first became apparent, South West Water was fined a total of £20,000 and ordered to pay £8,000 costs by Exeter magistrates in a case brought by the Environment Agency.

SWW had pleaded guilty to two offences under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010 including discharging noxious or polluting matter into inland freshwater and operating a sewage treatment works while in breach of its site permit.

A member of the public had alerted the Environment Agency to pollution on the River Yeo near Crediton sewage treatment works on June 19.

Environment Agency officers twice went to the river between then and June 21, by which time the illegal discharge had stopped, but the riverbed was covered with a carpet of sewage fungus from bank to bank and there were dead fish in the water.

An investigation by the Agency showed that the treatment process at Crediton had begun go wrong in April, 2010.

SWW had carried out maintenance work but it was said, should have been aware of further problems developing which first became apparent on June 7.

Unable to treat all the sewage arriving at Crediton, SWW took it by tanker to its Countess Wear, Exeter works, at a cost of up to £14,000 a day. At its peak, 14 tankers were continuously going between the two sites from June 19, 2010 until the Crediton treatment works were fully operational again on July 1.

Mischka Hewins for the Agency said that one of the fundamental principles of self monitoring was for site operators to report any issues or problems to the Agency. SWW had failed to do that.

Mischka added: "South West Water was fully aware that the River Yeo is a sensitive watercourse, yet no checks were made on the condition of the river while poor quality effluent was being discharged from the treatment works." It was likely the number of fish killed was higher than those counted in the shallow water.

Last June, David Pope, chairman of Crediton Fly Fishing Club, described it as "a major incident" adding "a long stretch of the River Yeo is now dead."

Last summer SWW apologised to people in Crediton who had "experienced odour" from their Lords Meadow sewage treatment works.

Workers on Lords Meadow Industrial Estate had said the smell was "shocking" with offices and workshops, closed overnight, full of a "terrible" smell when opened in the morning.