Yorkshire Water pays money to charity after 11-hour unauthorised sewage dump into River Calder

The Environment Agency says the 11-hour unauthorised dump came from the High Royd Towpath combined sewer overflow in Sowerby Bridge.

It has resulted in Yorkshire Water paying £300,000, which will be split between Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and Calder and Colne

Rivers Trust.

Yorkshire Water reported that on January 18, 2023, a discharge occurred from the High Royd Towpath combined sewer overflow after a screen failure at the wastewater treatment works.

This caused flows to back up and spill into the River Calder for around 11 hours, during a period of stormy weather.

The incident happened while key inlet screens and penstocks were awaiting repair and being operated manually, and a failure in the alarm system meant the problem was not detected early enough to prevent the discharge.

Yorkshire Water subsequently repaired the screens and penstocks, introduced new alarm links, and changed the bypass penstock system to ensure automatic opening.

The payments will be used towards projects including Citizen Science monitoring and land management across the Rivers Calder and Ryburn.

The Sowerby Bridge incident is one of seven between 2019 and 2023 which have seen Yorkshire Water ordered to pay a total of £2.35m.

The cash will go to environmental charities and includes improvements to nature reserves, wetland habitat creation and restoring flood plains.

The company will also pay all of the Environment Agency’s investigation costs.

Jacqui Tootill, water industry regulation manager in Yorkshire, said: “This £2.35m will be invested back into the local area to enhance the environment, delivering real benefits for people and wildlife.

“We are continuing to drive meaningful improvements in water company performance, hold persistent offenders to account and ultimately create a cleaner water environment.”