THE Environment Agency has launched an investigation into Southern Water after the company released as much as 17 million litres of sewage into the sea.

The troubled company dumped the wastewater last Wednesday after a fault at its East Worthing Pumping Station.

The Argus revealed on Saturday the water company released up to 17 million litres over a period of four hours and 50 minutes.

The Environment Agency (EA) was called and the nearby beaches closed.

The EA has been working with Southern Water and Adur and Worthing councils to find out what happened.

It has now announced that an investigation into Southern has been launched which could lead to prosecution.

A spokeswoman said: “Our investigation into this incident is ongoing and until this has been concluded, we cannot comment further as this could potentially prejudice any enforcement action we may possibly take.”

Last week’s incident is a near carbon copy of a sewage spill from the same East Worthing works back in 2012.

Five years ago, 40 million litres of sewage was released into the sea, leading to beaches along a ten-mile stretch to be closed for six days.

The Environment Agency investigated and Southern was fined £160,000 with £27,000 costs.

The company has been on the receiving end of numerous other fines over the last decade including for a record £2 million for flooding beaches in Kent with raw sewage. The spillage left the beaches closed to the public for nine days.

The EA spokeswoman added: “A significant discharge of untreated effluent was released into the sea and our staff provided advice on reducing and mitigating any environmental impacts.

“We carried out inspections of the foreshore and took bathing water samples in the days following the incident. No evidence of sewage debris was found, and bathing water quality has not been affected.”

In a statement, Southern Water said: “Although we are fully aware of the cause, after any incident we carry out a comprehensive review into what happened and this is currently ongoing.

“We released a mix of stormwater and wastewater [sewage] into the sea from around 8am to 12.50pm from a long-sea outfall – which is more than 3km out to sea.

“We cannot comment on behalf of the EA, so any questions should be directed to them.”