A water company was fined £7,500 for allowing sewage to flood into a brook.
Southern Water Services admitted polluting Brockhurst Brook, at Billingshurst, last October. An Environment Agency investigation discovered the entire fish population of the brook had been wiped out.
Horsham magistrates also ordered the company to pay £660 costs. The court heard that an electronic control device failed at a sewage works maintained by Southern Water, allowing sewage to flood into the brook. Southern Water called the Environment Agency to alert them to the leak.
Peter Bilborough, of the Environment Agency, said after the case: "In this day and age, all those responsible for handling polluting matter are expected to take care to ensure there is no risk that the environment will
suffer.
"The company failed to have the control systems at the works properly configured and as a consequence pollution had a significant impact on the aquatic environment in the immediate area of the works."
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