£75,000 Fine for River Pollution

A poultry company was today ordered to pay £78,180 in fines and costs for allowing waste from its processing plant to pollute the River Avon in Wiltshire. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

The Agency was alerted by two fishermen after they arrived at Christian Malford near Chippenham on August 2, 2001 and found the river had turned orange.

Environment protection officers traced the source of the pollution to the Faccenda Group (South) Ltd poultry processing plant at Sutton Benger where activated sludge was being discharged into the Avon from an effluent treatment works.

Later the same day a second pollution incident was reported in the Sutton Benger Brook that was traced to a fracture in a pipeline carrying treated effluent from the processing plant to the River Avon.

Officers returned to the plant on two subsequent occasions (August 10 and September 4) to inspect the outfall and found that instead of being clear, the effluent was discoloured orange/brown. Analysis showed the effluent breached consent limits. In one case, levels of suspended solids were over 50 times the maximum permitted limit.

Faccenda blamed the discharge of sludge on a breakdown of pumps and faulty ball valve, but investigations by the Agency showed the effluent treatment works to be in a poor state of repair and that the factory was operating in excess of its design capacity.

Despite problems with its treatment works, the company increased the number of birds it killed from 410,000 to 500,000 a week. It struggled to bring the effluent treatment plant under proper control following the initial pollution incident on August 2 and had to bring to tankers to remove excess effluent from the works.

“These were not isolated offences but the inevitable result of poor maintenance and lack of investment at a time of increased production. Pollution is still being treated as an acceptable risk by too many businesses. There is no excuse for poor environmental performance and it is important businesses understand their responsibilities to the public and the environment,” said Paul Henaghan for the Environment Agency.

Magistrates in Chippenham fined Faccenda Group (South) Ltd, of Willow Road, Brackley, Northants, £15,000 for each of four offences after it pleaded guilty to breaching the conditions of a discharge consent on four separate occasions between August 2 and November 7, 2001 contrary to Section 85(3) of the Water Resources Act 1991.

The company was also fined £15,000 for causing poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely activated sludge, to enter controlled waters contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act and ordered to pay £3,180 costs.
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