Councillors have demanded that “somebody needs to be held to account” over an incident which led sewage to be pumped into the sea at Redcar and also complained of communication failures.
Addressing local Environment Agency managers at a meeting, Councillor Sue Jeffrey said: “We had a whole weekend during very warm weather when people would have been swimming in the sea and we were not alerted to the fact that there was raw sewage being discharged at that time.”
Accidental damage to the Cargo Fleet main sewer pipe in South Bank, Middlesbrough, in June forced Northumbrian Water to carry out several “heavily diluted” discharges via a storm overflow to avoid the local system backing up with sewage.
‘No swim’ alerts were later issued following the incident on June 26 which affected beaches stretching down the coast from Hartlepool to Saltburn.
The fracture occurred when several thousand tonnes of earth were tipped onto the pipework by what has now emerged were contractors working on a planned solar farm development on leased council land in the area.
Redcar and Cleveland Council was not informed of the incident until 8.10pm on Monday June 29 – three days later.
Coun Jeffrey referred to “the failure to get the information into the public domain in time for people not to risk their health by swimming in the sea that was polluted”.
The council’s climate and environment scrutiny committee requested the EA attend a meeting after raising “significant concerns” regarding transparency, communication and stakeholder engagement, and also flagging upthe potential impact on public confidence, local tourism and coastal businesses.
Northumbrian Water was not present at the meeting, but said it notified the Environment Agency “immediately” of the issue and it was the EA’s responsibility to notify the council.
Answering questions from councillors, Rachael Caldwell, an area manager with the Environment Agency, said advice not to bathe was relayed via its swim info app and website and on social media once the sewage quantities that were being discharged became clear, and she understood the concerns expressed.
She said the advice was “precautionary” and analysis of water samples showed there was “no risk” to bathers – initial assessments having identified that any impact on water quality ranged from negligible to minor.
She said the EA quickly had a team on scene taking samples, while monitoring also included the use of a drone to try to understand the extent of any pollution.
Coun Jeffrey said: “Redcar is a tourist town and we depend on visitors being able to bathe in the water safely and that alert did not happen early enough, even if we found out subsequently there was no danger.
“It was obviously a major incident and communication was not as good as it should have been, and information was not getting to the right places as quickly as it should.
“Somebody still needs to be held to account for the fact that this disruption happened for ten days to a huge swathe of our beaches.
“We need your assurance that this will not be swept under the carpet and that there will be proper accountability for what happened.”
The former council leader asked if there would be “sanctions” against Northumbrian Water and was told there was an ongoing investigation.
Ms Caldwell said: “With a significant incident like this we would investigate as to whether the law has been broken…using the evidence we have gathered around impact and using the conditions that they [NWL] have [as per their licence].
“We will make an assessment of the most appropriate enforcement response.”
Another councillor, Ceri Cawley said there had been phone calls from members of the public worried about coming into contact with floating sewage.
She said: “They were asking ‘Is this why I have been ill this weekend?’, ‘Is this why my dog is ill?’
“Our team did fantastic and responded quickly far faster than the EA.
“Lessons need to be learnt and everyone needs to be singing from the same sheet at the same time.”
A briefing for committee members described how a “gold officer” had instigated emergency communication protocols after the local authority learnt of the incident.
Established arrangements for bathing water signage were implemented, and the council took the decision to publish its own communications to ensure residents were made aware of the situation.
The briefingconcluded: “Whilst the council was not the lead agency for the incident, it took all reasonable and proportionate steps available to it within its role and powers to protect public health, communicate with residents and support the response undertaken by the responsible agencies.”
The meeting also heard from the council’s assistant director of growth and enterprise, Andrew Carter, who was asked whether the council itself could be liable for any costs arising from the incident as the owner of the land.
He said: “That is an active discussion taking place right now.”
Last year the council granted planning permission for a solar farm project being overseen by a community interest company, Community Led Regeneration (CLR).
Mr Carter added: “Ultimately it will come down to what has caused the issue, is it the infrastructure of NWL that was insufficient, is it activity that the council has done on the site before, or is it activity that CLR has done on that site post getting permission from us.”
CLR has now confirmed it was one of the parties involved in the incident, with a spokesman stating: “Our contractors were working on site at the time. “We have not been informed if the cause of the pipe failure has been definitely established, but can confirm there has been no digging near the pipe at any time.”
In its statement Northumbrian Water said: “When we were made aware of the damaged sewage pipe at Cargo Fleet Lane we responded quickly.
“Our teams were faced with a very difficult and complex situation, and it took teams of workers days to get through piles of earth and spoil to the pipe to carry out the repair.
“We notified the Environment Agency immediately of the issue and informed them that we were confident that because of the tidal nature at the location, and the fact that any spills would be heavily diluted with surface water, that there would be minimal impact to the wider environment or river area.
“We set up a testing and monitoring programme to check this, and very quickly we were able to confirm that there had been no environmental impact to the wider area.
“As is their responsibility, the EA made the decision to implement no swim notices and notify the local authorities.
“We are continuing to work with the EA, Redcar and Cleveland Council and other partners as we’ve become aware of a number of other problems with this pipe and are planning a full replacement programme to avoid this from happening again.”