ONE of the region’s biggest water companies has been fined £30,000 after sewage polluted two streams.

Northumbrian Water says the separate incidents, which happened last year in County Durham, were due to blockages caused by items that should not have been in the sewerage system.

It is urging people to help it avoid further prosecutions by not “using the toilet as a rubbish bin”.

The company was taken to court by the Environment Agency where it admitted two charges of discharging polluted matter into watercourses.

Peterlee Magistrates heard that invertebrates were killed, and sewage fungus found in a 1.6km stretch of Kyo Burn, Stanley, last June, following a sewage discharge from a storm overflow on the Tanfield Trunk Sewer.

Normally, there is only a discharge in heavy rain to alleviate flood risk but a blockage stopped it operating properly and the sewer’s monitoring equipment was not working correctly.

The second incident occurred in August in Bowburn Beck, which flows into the River Wear south of Durham City.

A blockage in a sewer caused a manhole cover to lift, allowing sewage to flow out across fields and into the beck.

The Environment Agency said Northumbrian Water was informed about the problem but failed to investigate for four days, claiming there were difficulties accessing the site.

The firm eventually found that the blockage had been caused by rags, oil, fat and grease.

A one kilometre stretch of Bowburn Beck had many dead and dying invertebrates, with a small number of dead fish.

A Northumbrian Water spokesman said the firm had strict liability for the pollution, even though the problems were not of its making.

He said it responded quickly to clean up Kyo Burn and that it found a workman’s hat had caused the incident.

He said there were access problems at Bowburn. “We cleaned up the beck and also removed fly-tipped rubbish from the beck.”

He said the company ran information campaigns to warn people of the problems of putting things like grease, fat, oil and sanitary towels into the sewerage system.

“In particular, toilets should only be used for pee, poo and toilet paper; everything else should go into the bin.”

“We prevent many pollution problems each year that are caused by things that shouldn’t enter the sewers.”