Water firm drives 240 truckloads of sewage a day through town ‘to pump into sea’

South West Water has been accused of dumping millions of litres of raw sewage into a popular Devon beach resort after sending 240 tankers a day to an overflowing pumping station.

At the height of the problems last weekend, 18,000 and 10,000 litre tankers full of sewage were being transported through the East Devon tourist town of Exmouth for 24 hours a day from Friday until New Year’s Day, i has learned.

Since 11 December, the water firm has been dealing with two major pipe bursts in the town, which has led to untreated sewage being taken by a convoy of trucks to the Maer Road Sewage Pumping Station, just 200 metres from Exmouth’s two miles of sandy beach.

Campaigners say that due to the stormy conditions over the past week, the station has been overflowing and had a damaged outfall pipe and a failed pump. Some of the additional waste brought to the site has been seen making its way into a nearby brook that flows directly to the pipe that discharges it into the sea 40 metres from the nearby beach.

Geoff Crawford, the founder of ESCAPE (End Sewage Convoys And Poollution Exmouth), believes South West Water should have taken the sewage to a treatment works less than a mile away and its decision not to “indicates that they knew the sewage would go almost straight into the sea and didn’t care”.

Mr Crawford told i: “They appear to have wilfully polluted the sea with millions of litres of untreated sewage and, as far as we are aware, none of these faults have been reported to Environment Agency by South West Water.”

South West Water, which has apologised for the ongoing disruption, claims that it was prevented from taking the sewage to the nearby Maer Lane Sewage Treatment Works because of flooding on the roads. But i has seen video evidence filmed at the same time the sewage was being transported that suggests the roads were clear.

An investigation by i has also found that at least one of South West Water’s pumps at the station was not working while it was emptying up to 240 tankers of sewage into the site for three days up to New Year’s Day.

The faulty standby pump was one of three, and would have been required in stormy conditions, such as those experienced in Exmouth and across the country during Storm Henk.

When asked about the faulty pump, a spokesman for South West Water initially said that “all the pumps at Maer Road are working as expected”.

However, after asking a worker on the site if a pump on the back of a truck was new, he told i: “No, that is the broken pump we just took out.”

Presented with this comment and photo evidence of the faulty pump, South West Water altered its statement.

The water company’s spokesman said: “The pump you saw was a faulty standby storm pump being removed.

“A replacement pump is kept on site to ensure it can be installed quickly when needed, and this was completed successfully yesterday.

“The standby pump is required during storm conditions if there is an issue with any of the other pumps.”

The spokesman added: “At no time was the pumping station unable to pump to full capacity.”

When asked if the standby pump would have been required in the in the 94mph winds and downpours during Storm Henk, South West Water did not respond.

Mr Crawford, who has observed the pumping station every day since the sewage tanker deliveries began, added that he had calculated that during last weekend’s peak up to 500 loads were arriving at the site each day.

However, South West Water denies there were that many deliveries.

The company’s spokesman said: “We have 10 tankers transporting flows . . . to keep the burst site clear so a temporary pipe can be installed and a full repair can be made without the need for tankering. Each tanker is transporting up to one load per hour, making a maximum of 240 loads per day.”

Even at a level of 240 tanker deliveries, this equates to around 3.4 million of litres being delivered to the faulty pumping station each day.

While the route from the pumping station to the brook has grills preventing solid matter of more than 10mm to pass through, the untreated sewage is a sludge and contains potential deadly viruses such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) and the Enterococci bacteria.

Exmouth, which is currently a Blue Flag beach, failed to pass water standards in six of the last ten quality tests since October.

Over the past few years sewage discharged into the neighbouring Sandy Bay has led to its water standard falling from “Excellent” to “Satisfactory”, just one level above the lowest level of poor.

Last year, the boss of South West Water-owner Pennon Group gave up £440,000 in bonuses in the wake of record water quality fines for the company.

Pennon chief executive Susan Davy waived a £157,000 bonus and £283,000 in long-term incentives after the firm was fined £2.15m last April for illegally dumping sewage into rivers and the sea in Devon and Cornwall.

Despite giving up her bonuses Ms Davy, who was paid more £1.6m in the previous year, still took home her annual base salary of £460,000, while the firm’s shareholders benefitted from a dividend payout of £122m despite the company making a loss of £8.5m in the financial year to the end of March 2022.

An investigation by the Environment Agency found South West Water culpable for significant environmental harm.

According to South West Water’s own data, 60 beaches across Devon and Cornwall were impacted by sewage spills in recent days, including beaches at Lyme Regis, Torquay, Plymouth and Newquay.

A number of the discharges had been ongoing since before the new year before being exacerbated by Storm Henk.

The spokesman for South West Water added: “We are working around the clock to fix the issue with a pipe in Exmouth.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by this ongoing work, which we’re working hard to resolve as quickly as possible.”

The Environment Agency was asked if it was investigating South West Water’s actions in Exmouth but it had not responded at the time of publication.