Welsh Water fined for polluting the River Wye in Herefordshire
Welsh Water Ltd has been prosecuted for breaking conditions of its environmental permit at a sewage treatment works near Hereford between August 2020 and June 2021.
Environment Agency officers were alerted to an issue following routine sampling in July 2021. The permit prohibits Welsh Water from discharging effluent containing more than 7 milligrams per litre of biochemical oxygen demand on more than two occasions over a 12-month period.
Between 6 August 2020 to 19 June 2021, the sampling system showed that Welsh Water allowed levels to exceed the permitted levels on three occasions. On 8 August 2020, levels were recorded at 13 milligrams per litre; on 19 May 2021, levels were recorded at 74 milligrams per litre; and 19 June 2021 levels, were recorded at 41 milligrams per litre.
The results indicated that the treatment works was performing very poorly and that it was extremely unusual to have this many breaches in a 12-month period. A report concluded that this showed “either poor operational management, inadequate asset provision or a mixture of both.”
Welsh Water, in mitigation, said on the first 2 occasions, they could not identify a “root cause” for the permit breaches. On the third occasion, the company said the breach had occurred during a “significant storm.”
Breach
Welsh Water pleaded guilty to breaching condition 8(a)(i) of its environmental permit (AH1001901) for the Kingstone and Madley sewage treatment works between 5 August 2020 and 20 June 2021.
Penalty
Welsh Water was fined £90,000 with costs of £14,085.05 and a £190 surcharge.
Firms fined for dumping waste at a golf club
Two firms have been convicted of dumping waste at a golf club near Gatwick Airport, along with the owners of the now closed course.
An anonymous tip-off to the Environment Agency led to the discovery that almost 700 lorry-loads of waste had been dumped illegally at Rusper Golf Club.
Worthing-based Rusper Leisure Ltd had allowed the hauliers Cook and Son Ltd and Bell and Sons Construction Ltd to offload the waste. These activities did not hold the required Environment Agency authorisations. Rusper Leisure held planning permission to raise part of an embankment on the driving range by two metres. However, the agreement with Mole Valley District Council only authorised the use of clean soil.
Environment Agency investigators found the surface of the embankment contained glass, wood, plastic, tarmac, brick, concrete and other material. Similar loads were also dropped around the course and nearby. The investigation also discovered waste used to create more embankments and stockpiled close to woods on the edge of the golf course and in the club’s car park. Builders’ waste was mixed in with some of the soil.
Cook and Bell paid Rusper Leisure £100 a load for the tonnes of waste left on and around the greens in the second half of 2018.
When interviewed, Rusper Leisure’s company secretary told investigators she didn’t know the work needed a permit, claiming she believed planning permission was enough to bring waste onto the golf course.
A director with Bell and Sons told the Environment Agency he didn’t check if an environmental permit was needed for the work when told planning permission was in place for raising the bund. Nor did he check where his company’s lorries were dumping the waste.
A representative of Cook and Son admitted his drivers left waste on the course and that he’d taken no further steps to find out if the site had a permit from the Environment Agency, beyond asking Bell if the site was legal for that purpose.
Waste transfer notes track where material is taken from and to, but many of the hundreds of dockets seen by the Environment Agency regarding the movements of the dumped material lacked crucial detail. Details missing included a description of the waste, where on the course it was placed and if it was hazardous or not
Breaches
Rusper Leisure Ltd was charged with breaching Regulation 12(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.
Cook and Son Ltd and Bell and Sons Construction Ltd were both charged with breaching Section 33(1)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Penalties
Rusper Leisure Ltd was fined £2,000 for running a waste operation at the golf club with no environmental permit. Costs were £3,000.
Cook and Son Ltd was fined £24,000, with costs of £12,500, for dumping the banned waste.
Bell and Sons Construction Ltd was fined £12,000 for dumping banned waste. Costs were £8,000.
All three companies were given victim surcharge fees of £170.
No penalty was given to the Cook and Bell companies for failing to provide written descriptions of the waste, or to Cook and Son for not taking measures to avoid breaches of the law by Rusper Leisure Ltd.
Proceeds of crime case brought against man who illegally felled trees
In what is believed to be a UK first, a landowner will have money confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 for forestry offences.
The man felled a total of 8.5 hectares of native woodland within the Gower national Landscape without an appropriate licence between April 2019 and September 2020.
Native and wet woodland are a priority habitat listed under Section 7 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016. Many trees were uprooted and damaged to an extent where they are unlikely to regenerate, with officers noting it was one of the worst offences of illegal felling they had seen for 30 years.
Having previously been found guilty of forestry offences in April 2022, the man was handed a confiscation order by the Judge for £11,280 under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. He was also fined £1,500 for his offences.
The man’s offences related to felling without a licence and for noncompliance with an enforcement to replant those trees. The man unsuccessfully appealed the April 2022 conviction in November 2022.
The Judge agreed with Natural Resources Wales’ assessment that the man had benefited financially to the tune of £78,640.68 from his crimes. However, the Judge made a confiscation order which ordered the man to pay £11,280 as his available amount.
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