by Sarah Shaffi

sshaffi@thekmgroup.co.uk

A company has admitted supplying drinking water which was not properly treated, and said sorry to its customers.

Southern Water was charged with three offences relating to water distributed from the Matts Hill Water Treatment Works in Rainham to around 140,000 customers in parts of Chatham, Gillingham and rural areas near Rainham.

The firm pleaded guilty to one charge each of not designing and operating an adequate treatment process for water; of not disinfecting water before it was supplied and of not subjecting water to a preliminary treatment which would prepare it for disinfection.

Southern Water said it reported the breaches to the Drinking Water Inspectorate as soon as it realised what had happened in November 2008, and added that it apologised to customers “for breaching stringent Drinking Water Inspectorate regulations”.

Paul Davies, Southern Water’s director of operations, said: “Our number one priority is to ensure all water we supply is safe to drink and, although there were no complaints about the water when this happened, we were extremely concerned and have taken action to help prevent any repeat.”

The company was fined £2,500 for each of the three offences and agreed to pay £23,932.36 towards costs, before Medway magistrates on Monday .

Professor Jeni Colbourne, chief inspector of drinking water at the Drinking Water Inspectorate, said: “This case was brought because the deficiencies in the design and operation of the water treatment plant were serious in terms of potential risk to public health.

“I am pleased to note that Southern Water has recognised the faults and is making the necessary improvements .”

The breaches were caused because heavy rainfall caused more chalk to get into the water. High levels of chalk can lead to a reduction in the amount of chlorine in water.

The inspectorate said: “The design of the water treatment works coupled with operational procedures permitted the cloudy water to enter the treatment works, affecting the disinfection process and resulting in inadequately treated water.”

Southern Water is spending £5 million to improve the plant.