Government ministers could slap fines of up to £250 million on water companies for serious sewage spills, Parliament has been told.
Don't swim warnings were issued in the region last summer after sewage appeared to have been pumped into the North Sea on several locations along the North East coast. Northumbrian Water, which supplies Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and parts of North Yorkshire was forced to defend the level of raw sewage discharged into Northumberland's rivers and seas last year after an investigation by Channel 4's dispatches programme found that 61 pipes across the region could be spilling untreated sewage into waterways and operating without permits.
Lord Benyon said the option to dramatically increase the penalty cap remained on the table. The environment minister and Tory frontbencher argued that the current upper limit of £250,000 was "not a significant enough deterrent" and that "very serious fines" should be a sanction for polluting firms.
