Press Notice - 20 March 1998
Yorkshire Water pleads guilty to charge of supplying water unfit for human consumption
Yorkshire Water Services Limited today pleaded guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption. The incident involved the supply of discoloured water to the villages of Great and Little Ouseburn, Marton and Marton cum Grafton in February 1997.
The charges, brought under Section 70 of the Water Industry Act 1991, were heard at Harrogate Magistrates Court.
Michael Rouse, Chief Inspector of the Drinking Water Inspectorate, said:
"I am very pleased that Yorkshire Water has seen fit to plead guilty. As the guardians of drinking water quality, DWI will consider prosecution in all cases in which consumers have received water which they regard as unfit for consumption."
The Company was fined £12,000 with costs of £8,325.
The Inspectorate will make the results of its investigations publicly available in due course.
Notes for Editors
1. The prosecution follows an investigation by the Drinking Water Inspectorate of an incident involving the supply of discoloured water to the villages of Great and Little Ouseburn, Marton and Marton cum Grafton and the surrounding rural areas on 20 February 1997.
2. Section 70 of the Water Industry Act 1991 makes it a criminal offence for a water company to supply water which is unfit for human consumption. The Inspectorate investigates all drinking water quality incidents and will prosecute in the name of the Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions if it believes that it has evidence that water unfit for human consumption was supplied, if it believes that the Company does not have a defence that it took all reasonable steps and exercised due diligence to secure the supply, and if such a prosecution is regarded as being in the public interest.
3. In this case, the Inspectorate found that there had been a breakdown in communications between certain sections of Yorkshire Water, which resulted in serious operational problems at Marton water treatment works. Yorkshire Water decided to continue supplying water from the works rather than lose supplies overall, even though this inevitably meant that discoloured water would be supplied to some consumers. The water initially appearing black and contained a lot of sediment. Some of the affected area continued to receive noticeably discoloured water for more than two days. Yorkshire Water did not take steps to warn consumers or make alternative supplies available.
4. Yorkshire Water logged 35 complaints during the incident, mainly from the Great Ouseburn area. The Inspectorate interviewed a number of the complainants, all of whom claimed that the water was undrinkable. The discolouration was caused by the disturbance of iron and manganese deposits. Consumers rejected it on the grounds of appearance, there was no health risk involved.
5. The Drinking Water Inspectorate was set up in January 1990. Its main task is to check that water companies in England and Wales supply wholesome water and comply with the requirements of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations.
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Published 15 September 1999 / Updated 11 July 2001
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