Thames Water Fined For River Pollution

In all, a 5km stretch of the river was polluted killing the majority of fish that were present.

Thames Water was fined 125,000 pounds on Monday after it admitted it had killed thousands of fish after carelessly releasing harmful pollutants into a river, the Environment Agency said.

Britain's largest water company had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to allowing a large amount of industrial strength chlorine to spill into the River Wandle from its sewerage treatment works near Mitcham in south London in 2007.

In all, a 5km stretch of the river was polluted killing the majority of fish that were present.

The Environment Agency said it took its officials, helped by local anglers, three days to remove two tonnes of dead fish from the river which had turned a milky colour and bleached much of the green vegetation that grows along the channel bed.

The Wandle, which flows through the south of the capital, had suffered extensive pollution in the past but had become a "vibrant rich habitat" due to measures taken in the last 20 years and a fish stocking programme, the Agency said.

It was considered one of the best urban coarse fisheries in the country before the incident.

"This pollution effectively wiped out 20 years of painstaking restoration work on the River Wandle," said Environment Officer Peter Ehmann.

"For many years individuals and organisations, including the Environment Agency and the Wandle Trust, have achieved great improvements to water quality and aquatic life in the Wandle. This incident is a major set back to all their hard work."

Thames Water admitted that the chlorine had been released from its Beddington Sewerage Works during a cleaning operation.

It was given the fine and also ordered to pay 21,335 in clean-up and investigation costs following a hearing at Croydon Crown Court.