Scottish Water was fined £20,000 for discharging partially treated sewage and sludge into protected wetlands.
The business pled guilty to two unlicensed discharges from a sewage treatment works in October 2010 as the result of a failure to properly maintain essential sewage processing equipment.
The failure, combined with seasonally increased precipitation, resulted in spillages of biologically active sewage, known as mixed liquor, from the sewage works over an area of scrub, a public footpath and into the wetlands beside Castle Semple Loch, smothering flora and fauna and making the area unsuitable for wildlife.
