DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD & RURAL AFFAIRS (DEFRA)
Flooding in England: lead government department plan
This plan, which primarily serves for internal use within Defra, has been prepared to support flood emergency planning.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Regulators’ Code and the Environment Agency
This guidance document sets out how the Environment Agency meets the Regulators’ Code, which came into force on 6 April 2014.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE (DECC)
Model Energy Performance Contract
Energy performance contracts are to be used to deliver required energy conservation measures to buildings occupied by public sector organisations. Energy service companies designing and implementing the measures are required to guarantee the energy savings concerned.
MARITIME AND COASTGUARD AGENCY (MCA)
The MCA has published two marine guidance notes concerning the use of exhaust gas cleaning systems on ships:
NORTHERN IRELAND ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Wildlife Law and You
This updated leaflet summaries wildlife law in Northern Ireland, and the duties it imposes.
Summary of Nitrates Action Programme 2015 - 2018 and Phosphorus Regulations
People driven indoors by smells emanating from site
A waste operator has been sentenced to 9 months imprisonment suspended for 2 years for running an illegal site. He used land in Boston, Lincolnshire which was not suitable and the he was not properly prepared, despite repeated advice from the Environment Agency (EA).
On Friday 9 January 2015 Lincoln Crown Court also ordered him to pay a contribution to the prosecution costs of £2,500.
The operator registered three exemptions with the EA to store, clean and treat waste plastics and cardboard at the site but in April 2013 complaints were made about smells. Some people living nearby described the smells as ‘pungent like rotting meat’ and were forced to close their doors and windows and stay indoors. One man had to abandon his gardening as the smell gave him a headache and he was sick. Plastic containers with food remains and liquids were found being stored outside and the smell was so strong it went beyond the boundary of the site.
The site drained into the South Forty Foot Drain and the operator had been sent warning letters by the EA for polluting the river in 2011, and a field ditch in 2012. In April 2013 he was told that the site did not comply with the exemptions he had registered, because he was causing odour pollution, rats and flies. A month later there was more waste on site. An EA officer saw waste being washed close to a surface water drain and the operator was told to stop and to clear waste from around the drain as there was no sealed drainage in breach of one of the exemptions.
The court was told that despite the warnings, during June and July liquid was allowed to leak onto the ground and water in the surface water drains was milky grey. The operator was asked to produce an action plan showing how he proposed to comply with his exemptions but nothing changed and the relevant exemption was de-registered. He was told to remove all the waste from the land by 1 August. It was still there on 2 August and there were tanks full of washwater, fat and foods on site. Investigators were told that he had operated from the site for 3 years but had not realized what he was getting into and had taken more waste than could be managed.
The operator pleaded guilty to operating a waste operation for the deposit, storage and treatment of waste, without being authorised by an environmental permit granted under Regulation 13 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.
Contrary to Regulations 12(1)(a) and 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (A person must not, except under and to the extent authorised by an environmental permit, operate a regulated facility)
SITA fined over £110,000 for breaching permit at Surrey landfill
SITA UK Ltd was fined a total of £110,000 by Redhill Magistrates Court on 13 January 2015 for breaching the conditions of its environmental permit and for failing to comply with an Enforcement Notice for its landfill site at Albury Landfill in Surrey. The company was also ordered to pay £8,832 in legal costs.
The company had exceeded the landfill site’s leachate limit set out in its environmental permit. During 2013 there were 8 leachate wells that were non-compliant with the permit requirement of a maximum leachate level of 3 metres above the base.
The court heard how the type of waste deposited at the landfill will degrade and produce both gas and leachate. In order to reduce the risk of leachate escaping the site and polluting the groundwater, the landfill is lined with an engineered system on the base consisting of clay overlain by a plastic liner. The clay extends across the base of each cell and up the side slope to a level of three metres above the base, with only the plastic liner rising higher. The company had continued non-compliance of its leachate levels despite ongoing guidance and support from Environment Agency officers.
In 2013, Pollution Prevention and Control Officers made a number of visits to the landfill to undertake monitoring, which confirmed that the leachate levels remained high.
In February 2014, the company came into compliance with their leachate levels by supplementing treatment through the on-site leachate treatment plant with tankering leachate off site for treatment elsewhere. The company is now continuing to focus on completing the capping and restoration of the landfill, which will help reduce the generation of leachate.
Breaches concerned:
Contrary to Regulation 38(1) (b) of the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2010 (A person must not, except under and to the extent authorised by an environmental permit, operate a regulated facility)
Company hands over almost £250,000 proceeds of crime
On 27 January 2015 Rory J Holbrook Limited was ordered to pay £247,278 proceeds of crime by Norwich Crown Court for illegally tipping waste on land in Blofield, Norfolk. The company, which was also fined £30,000 and ordered to pay a contribution to the prosecution costs of £20,000, admitted taking waste to the Yarmouth Road site. It said excess waste was treated and sold off site. The remainder formed the basis of a golf course.
The EA said that in essence the company was running a waste transfer station. An exemption had been registered for the site but it only allowed the use of suitable waste for small scale construction to avoid the use of virgin raw materials. The limit under the exemption was 5,000 tonnes of aggregates – company records showed that 94,000 tonnes had been taken to the site. The exemption does not allow the treatment of waste and does not allow for the use of any contaminated soil.
When EA officers first visited the site they saw piles of various wastes which included soil, rubble, asphalt, and aggregate fines. There was evidence the company had taken waste from a groundworks company, a contractor for two developers who were building at nearby sites, one of which required remediation due to historic soil contamination. Some of the waste that had been treated at the Blofield site had been sold.
The company turnover from the site was in excess of £500,000 and it also gained financially by not paying for permit applications and subsistence fees. A company representative stated that it was not a deliberate breach of the law but a negligent breach and that the company kept consistent records and co-operated with the investigation.
The court found the culpability of the company to be significantly reckless and made a confiscation order to include the avoided tipping fees, avoided permit fees and money made from selling aggregates from the treatment of waste.
Contrary to Regulation 12(1)(a) and 38(1)(a) Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (A person must not, except under and to the extent authorised by an environmental permit, operate a regulated facility)
Contrary to Section 33(1)(b) (and 33(6) (Environmental Protection Act 1990
Northern Ireland Water Ltd fined £1,500 for pollution offence
Northern Ireland Water Limited (NIW) pleaded guilty and was fined £1,500 at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on 13 January 2015.
The company was charged with making a polluting discharge from the Dromore Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW), Dromore, Co Down.
On 9 January 2014, a Senior Water Quality Inspector acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, carried out a routine inspection of the outlet from Dromore Wastewater Treatment Works and observed an active discharge from the storm pipe. The discharge to the River Lagan was occurring during a period of dry weather and sewage debris was observed around the outfall.
A sample taken at the time of the incident confirmed that the discharge contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, which was potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.
NIW was charged for breaching Article 7 (1) (a) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (A person commits an offence if, whether knowingly or otherwise he discharges or deposits any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter so that it enters a waterway or water contained in any underground strata).a
