Water firm fined £1,000 over unfit supply

SCOTTISH Water has been fined for supplying water unfit for human consumption.

Residents in the Moray village of Tomintoul were left complaining of skin problems after high levels of sodium carbonate, used as a water softener, entered the domestic supply.

The water company was fined £1,000 at Elgin Sheriff Court yesterday after admitting the offence which occurred in October 2009. The court was told that the sodium carbonate had been overdosed into the water supply serving Tomintoul over a three-day period.

Local people bathing in the water reported skin irritation due its high alkalinity and a “Do Not Use” notice was issued, resulting in the closure of a number of local businesses.

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR) investigated and prepared the case for prosecution. Sue Petch, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland, said the case marked the first prosecution against Scottish Water for a drinking water offence, since the company was created in 2002.

She added: “This case was the result of a number of factors that combined to cause an extremely serious water quality incident.

“Scottish Water’s treatment works at Blairnamarrow, that serves Tomintoul, was not up to modern standards and did not have the safeguards we expect. This, combined with a wholly inadequate operational response from Scottish Water, produced an incident that caused great inconvenience to the residents and businesses in Tomintoul over a number of days.”

A Scottish Water spokesman said: “Scottish Water has apologised to our customers for this inconvenience.

“We take such matters extremely seriously and subsequently a full investigation into our response to this incident was carried out, identifying a list of actions to prevent any such recurrence.

“These actions have all since been implemented on.”