A WATER company has been fined £10,000 for killing hundreds of fish by polluting a tributary to the River Itchen in Southampton.
Portsmouth Water Ltd allowed effluent from water it was treating to flow into the watercourse instead of into the sewerage system at Gates Mill in Allington Lane, West End.
The Environment Agency counted nearly 300 dead fish and, if the pollution had not been detected as early as it was, the local drinking water could have been contaminated and the River Itchen itself polluted.
The company pleaded guilty to polluting the tributary at New Forest Magistrates' Court this afternoon.
The court heard the water turned a milky white colour, due to the presence of polyaluminium chloride, and led to fish, including minnows, roach and stickleback, suffocating. This happened when waste water was accidentally pumped into a surface water drain that leads directly to the main watercourse.
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