Yorkshire Water pays £150,000 for River Don sewage discharge

Yorkshire Water said it had acted quickly to stop the sewage discharge

Yorkshire Water has paid £150,000 for an "unauthorised sewage discharge" into Sheffield's River Don.

The Environment Agency (EA) said it found sewage at Kirk Bridge Dike in Darnall in April 2020.

The cash will be given to Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust. The firm also agreed to pay the costs of the EA's investigation.

Yorkshire Water said the agency had found "limited evidence of harm to the watercourse".

The company will also pay for Darnall Road's sewer overflow telemetry equipment so the agency will know of any further issues.

Sewage spills by water companies into England's rivers and seas more than doubled last year, with 3.6 million hours of spills compared with 1.75 million hours in 2022, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Yorkshire Water said "evolving procedures and processes" meant it had halved the number of pollution incidents in the last five years.

The EA's Mike Dugher said they would always take forward prosecutions in the most serious cases.

"Enforcement undertakings allow polluters to correct and restore harm caused to the environment and prevent repeat incidents by improving procedures, helping ensure future compliance with environmental requirements," he added.

Yorkshire Water said the spill was initially caused by a blockage in the sewage network.

A spokesperson for the firm said: "We know incidents of this kind are distressing and when things go wrong, we understand we have a responsibility to make it right and to prevent these things from happening at all."