Angler\'s club wins £4,000 compensation after sewage dumping

A group of anglers practicing in a Clyde waterway have been awarded £4,000 out of court by Scottish Water.

The compensation was awarded after the firm dumped sewage sludge into the Rotten Calder waterway, which prompted environmental agency Sepa to downgrade the water quality from good to poor.

Hundreds of fish were killed following the incident in 2007, which was brought about when a valve at the nearby Allers treatment works in East Kilbride was left open, reported the Herald newspaper.

Secretary of the East Kilbride Angling Club Brendan McWilliams, said the amount of the settlement is not high enough to deter a similar incident in the future, as the firm has been prosecuted 67 times in the last ten years for similar offences.

He added: "This was the second of two incidents at the Allers sewage works in two years and while the settlement allows us to recover our restocking costs, the level of fine imposed by the sheriff was pitiful."

This news follows an incident which saw 40 pounds of hydrochloric acid released accidentally into water supplies in Ohio’s Bellaire district in the US.