Following a positive and constructive meeting between Southern Water, Thanet District Council Leader and local MPs, Ian McAulay, Southern Water’s CEO, said:
“This was an exceptional incident caused by a direct lightning strike. We are hugely grateful to Thanet District Council for their work with us. We have agreed to meet the costs the council has incurred as a result of the incident to ensure no additional pressure on the public purse.”
“No pollution is acceptable to our customers and it is not acceptable to Southern Water either. This was an exceptional and unfortunate event and while the incident is still under investigation, Southern Water had prepared well in advance of the predicted heavy rain and thunderstorms last week. We acted on the alarm within minutes of it being activated since we had already deployed standby crews preemptively to site.
“To protect local homes and businesses from internal flooding from the volume of rain, surface water and wastewater passing through the pumping station at that time meant we had no choice but to make an emergency release.
“Although this emergency processes operated as designed, we are well aware that the expectations and opinions of society have significantly changed in recent years. Southern Water is now a UK industry leader in transparent and effective pollution reporting, together with one of the most comprehensive CSO monitoring systems in the country, and with that a significant and growing demand from the public nationwide for politicians, water companies and others to take action.
“We have invested significantly in making improvements to reduce the risk of future incidents occurring at Margate Pumping Station. We know the local community has been badly affected in the past and to reduce the risks we have invested £10m in the last decade. Another £5.5m will be invested in the site by 2025.
“I’m happy to have agreed a way forward together that prioritises affected businesses and the environment. I am pleased that Thanet District Council, in consultation with the Environment Agency, has announced it will be lifting the bathing water restrictions today.
“At our meeting with Thanet District Council leader, Councillor Ash Ashbee, the district council’s CEO Madeline Homer and local MPs Sir Roger Gale and Craig Mackinlay we repeated the commitment to compensate local businesses directly affected by the incident, we are acutely aware of the additional pressures that businesses have experienced as a result of Covid. We made this offer last week and have invited directly affected businesses to contact us with information about the impact the incident has had on their business activities.
“In addition, we also agreed to work in partnership with the council to fund additional community and environment work around the beaches area over the summer.
“I look forward to attend a further meeting in future with all the members of Thanet District Council.”