Drinks company fined £36,000 for polluting river

Environment Agency, 10-Aug-2011
Universal Beverages Ltd, a subsidiary of Heineken UK Ltd pleaded guilty at Hereford Magistrates’ Court to seven offences on 2 August 2011.
The company, of Little Marcle Road, Ledbury, was fined £36,000, ordered to pay £20,825 in costs, along with a £15 victim surcharge.
The charges were brought by the Environment Agency under Section  85(1) of the Water Resources Act 1991 and the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007.
Nicholas Cole, on behalf of the Environment Agency, told the court how the site was a former jam factory which had been converted to mill fruit. Between 21 October 2008 and 22 January 2009 there were a number of incidents where the Preserves Brook, which runs through the company’s site and into the River Leadon, was found to be polluted with leachate from apple waste. Environment Officers found large piles of apple waste next to the brook, from which polluting liquid was leaching out and into the watercourse. The levels of pollution in  the brook far exceeded the permitted levels.
On 14 September 2009, Environment Officers went to the Preserves Brook after reports of pollution by a member of the public. The brook downstream of the company’s site was found to be a greyish white colour with sewage fungus on the brook bed.  It was identified that floor cleaning fluid had been poured down a surface water drain which lead to the brook. The company subsequently identified that a drain from the boilerhouse on site had been wrongly connected to the surface water drainage system. This meant that contaminated boiler water was also being discharged to the brook.
On 25 September 2009, officers from the Environment Agency were called after reports of dead fish in the River Leadon. Officers attended the area on 26, 27 and 28 September 2009 where the dead fish were observed. On the 30 September 2009 a biological survey was conducted on sections of the River Leadon and Preserves Brook. The results from the sampling of the brook indicated it had suffered from significant organic pollution. Sewage fungus was also observed in the river. During a further visit to the site on 30 September 2009, Environment Officers identified red coloured polluting matter in the brook immediately downstream of the company’s site, a sample of the red coloured liquid taken from the brook smelt of apples.
The investigations also identified several breaches of the conditions of the environmental permit. An Enforcement Notice was served to the company for revised operational procedures, completion of training and outstanding improvement conditions.
Speaking after the case, an Environment Agency officer in charge of the investigation said: “It is the company’s responsibility to ensure that they have a full understanding of the operation of their site and have adequate control measures and staff training in place to prevent polluting material from impacting on the quality of the local environment. We take such matters seriously and will prosecute where circumstance justify.”
In mitigation, the company was given credit for its early guilty pleas and the proactive stance taken by the new site management on environmental issues. On behalf of the company, Stuart Ponting, offered sincere apologies for what had been an operator error and management failings which had now been remedied.
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