Wessex Water pays £85,000 for SSSI sewage spill

In January 2018, a sewer burst into a ditch in Stoborough Heath, in Wareham, Dorset. Owned jointly by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Natural England. The woodland and wet and dry heath is home to species such as rare Dartford warblers, nightjars and the wartbiter cricket. 

The incident had a “severe impact” on one of the numerous biodiverse water-filled ditches in the reserve, raising levels of ammonia and leaving sewage fungus for a length of 100m, according to the Environment Agency. But there was no impact on the main watercourse that flows through the site.