Home » UK Business & Employment News • UK Business News » United Utilities faces £800k fine for excessive water extraction
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United Utilities has been fined £800,000 for unlawfully abstracting 22 billion litres of water five years ago.
The Environment Agency (EA) said its actions in Lancashire had significantly depleted the Fylde Aquifer.
The aquifer is a vital source of public water and a contributor to local river flow.
The body noted this over-abstraction during arid conditions in 2018 would mean years for the aquifer to recover.
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United Utilities has admitted its guilt, undertaken corrective measures, and allocated £3 million to local environmental initiatives.
EA Area Director Carol Holt said: "While water companies are allowed to abstract water from the environment, over-abstraction, especially during times of prolonged dry weather, has damaging impacts to our environment.
"Our actions as regulator have led to today's sentencing and we will continue to strive for a better water sector across the country to protect our precious water supplies now, and for the future."
Investigations found United Utilities exceeded its water extraction limits, as stipulated by five abstraction licenses for the Franklaw and Broughton Borehole Complex.
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The company affirmed its intention to support local Rivers Trust projects to mitigate environmental impact.
It expressed internal enhancements to prevent future over-abstraction.
Grant Batty, water services director at UU, said: "We apologised for the breach in water abstraction that happened five years ago in 2018.
"We did not exceed the amount of water we could abstract on a daily and yearly basis, but we did inadvertently breach a three-year rolling limit on the abstraction licence.
"As soon as we discovered this, we established additional controls to ensure it never happens again.
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"We took action straight away, pleaded guilty and also made a £3m voluntary contribution to local environmental improvement projects."
Water Minister Rebecca Pow supported the penalty to hold environmental offenders accountable.
She said: "Through our Plan for Water we are driving forward work to improve our water system and deliver the change people want to see - including tougher enforcement, tighter regulation of water companies and increased investment."
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