United Utilities fined £800k for taking too much water out of ground

United Utilities has apologised for "inadvertently" breaching an abstraction limit

A water firm has been fined £800,000 after illegally abstracting 22bn litres of water five years ago.

The Environment Agency (EA) said the actions of United Utilities (UU) in Lancashire had caused a significant decline in the Fylde Aquifer.

It said the water-bearing layer was an important public water source and helped the flow of local rivers.

UU said it had acted straight away, pleaded guilty and also given £3m to local environment projects.

EA said it would take years for the aquifer to recover from the over-abstraction in very dry weather in 2018.

Area Director Carol Holt said: "While water companies are allowed to abstract water from the environment, over-abstraction, especially during times of prolonged dry weather, has damaging impacts to our environment.

"Our actions as regulator have led to today's sentencing and we will continue to strive for a better water sector across the country to protect our precious water supplies now, and for the future."

'Tighter regulation'

An investigation showed UU had taken more water than was allowed by five of its abstraction licences in the Franklaw and Broughton Borehole Complex, Warrington Magistrates' Court heard.

During the hearing, the water company said it would support a number of local Rivers Trust schemes to help the environment and that it had made internal improvements to ensure over-abstraction did not happen again.

Grant Batty, water services director at UU, said: "We apologised for the breach in water abstraction that happened five years ago in 2018.

"We did not exceed the amount of water we could abstract on a daily and yearly basis, but we did inadvertently breach a three-year rolling limit on the abstraction licence.

"As soon as we discovered this, we established additional controls to ensure it never happens again.

"We took action straight away, pleaded guilty and also made a £3m voluntary contribution to local environmental improvement projects."

Water Minister Rebecca Pow said it was "absolutely right" that companies which harm the environment were held to account.

"Through our Plan for Water we are driving forward work to improve our water system and deliver the change people want to see - including tougher enforcement, tighter regulation of water companies and increased investment."