caused by work on its supply mains stirring up sediment. About 1,200 properties were affected and 64 customers complained. The Drinking Water Inspectorate said to the ENDS Report that this was not the first time that the company had failed to check valves before working on its distribution mains. Before this incident, the DWI had prosecuted it four times. Yorkshire Water's largest fine, of £119,000 (reduced to £80,000 on appeal), with costs of £125,598, was received in December 2000 after pleading guilty to seventeen charges of supplying water unfit for human consumption. Yorkshire Water was investigated under caution in October 2008 by the Environment Agency following a leak of sewage into Whitby Harbour. The leak was caused by a pump failure and resulted in sewage leaking into the harbour for 52 hours. Performance In June 1996, Yorkshire Water was effectively fined £40 million by the regulator, Ofwat, by freezing their ability to raise bills for customers. This was a result of what Ofwat described as a "failure to deliver the standards required to consumers". This fine was a result of being the most hated water company during the "year of the drought" (1995). However, Yorkshire Water's performance had turned around so much so that the company was awarded the title by Utility Week magazine three years in succession while no other water company has won it more than once." The company has been criticised (2022) for losing 283 million litres of water a day due to leakages. The company says that this is a 50% reduction on the period 1995/96. 1992 Sludge tip blocks River Colne, Huddersfield A landslip of sewage sludge engulfed a sewage works at Huddersfield in 1992. Almost of sewage slipped from its Deighton waste tip on to the plant, and completely blocked of the River Colne. The disaster also forced the closure of a nearby ICI plant. 1995 Year of Drought For months between September 1995 and January 1996 reservoirs in the west side of the region ran dry, and water had to be taken by (up to) 700 tankers (delivering of water a day) from the east side of the region near Goole in a convoy of trucks, with 3,500 daily deliveries along the M62 in a drastic emergency measure which cost £3 million a week, eventually totalling £33 million for the entire tankering operation. The trucks were famously shown on TV delivering water into