A water company has been ordered to pay £300,000 after a backed-up sewer spilled into a river tributary, killing dozens of fish.
Waste from the Wessex Water sewer, which flowed into a River Yeo tributary in Somerset in September 2022, killed a number of bullhead fish and three-spined sticklebacks.
The money will go towards the Yeovil Rivers Community Trust to support habitat improvement projects in the area, including for endangered water voles, the Environment Agency has said.
Wessex Water said the money will not come from customer bills and said it recognises these incidents “are never acceptable” and explained that “reducing pollutions will always be a top priority”.
