Anaerobic digestion plant receives five figure fine for water course pollution
Trinity Hall Biogas has been prosecuted, after it was found that poor site management at an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Hockliffe, Bedfordshire resulted in significant watercourse pollution.
The court heard that as a result of overflows from the plant in December 2013 and in April 2014, water quality was impacted in the stream from the farm near Hockliffe to the Ouzel Brook approximately three kilometres downstream.
The court heard that a storage tank holding leachate from a maize heap stored for use as bio-fuel in the AD plant had overflowed. The AD plant operator had failed to check the tank.
Ms Wendy Foster, prosecuting on behalf of the Environment Agency, said that bags of wrapped bio-fuel were stored on a field in rows, the ends of which were within 10m of the ditch where the effluent was found. This constituted a breach of silage legislation.
The prosecution stated that samples taken from the watercourse indicated ongoing chronic pollution associated with bacterial growth. Four months later Agency officers returned to the farm to test water quality at the brook and nearby watercourses and found levels of ammonia at 10milligram a litre, 10 times higher than normally found in similar watercourses.
Effluent in the storage tank had only been inches from the top and a mud bank had been cleared creating a direct pathway for effluent to reach the watercourse. Effluent was leaking from a pump in several places and running into a ditch.
The company told Agency investigators that Scott and Scott (the business operating the plant) were only responsible for emptying the tank if there was an agreement with the company for them to do so. There were no such agreements at the time of the offences, and this was deemed an oversight by the company.
Breach
Trinity Hall Biogas pleaded guilty to four offences, twice for each of the breaches detailed below:
The controlling partner of Scott and Scott, the business operating the plant, had previously accepted a caution.
Penalty
Trinity Hall Biogas was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £10,423.79 in costs to the Environment Agency.
Wakefield waste firm has permit revoked
The Environment Agency has revoked the environmental permit of the Wakefield-based waste firm Noble Waste Treatment Ltd following a series of breaches of permit conditions. As the permit has now been revoked, no more waste may be accepted.
Noble Waste Treatment had a history of repeated non-compliances with its permit conditions. Conditions are imposed through the permit to protect of the environment and local communities from the risk of pollution caused by waste activities.
The Environment Agency press release reports that previous issues at the site include storage of excessive quantities of waste for prolonged periods, the storage of waste in a manner that poses a fire risk and the storage of waste on land outside the permitted area.
Noble Waste Treatment is allowed until 22 September 2016 to remove waste from the permitted area. If it does not comply, further legal action may be taken by the regulator.
Noble Waste Treatment previously appealed the notice, which was first issued in 2015, but the notice has now been upheld.
Penalty
Although no financial penalty was applied, Noble Waste may no longer accept waste at the site.
Action taken against north Wales skip company
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has issued a legal suspension notice against a skip hire company in Porthmadog due to the risk of serious pollution at its yard.
NRW found that Porthmadog Skip Hire had been storing more waste than its environmental permit allowed. NRW concluded that this posed a risk of serious pollution, particularly if it resulted in a fire.
Under the conditions of their environmental permit Porthmadog Skip Hire can keep up to 5,000 tonnes of waste per year if stored in appropriate areas. NRW estimated that there was currently 7,800 tonnes of waste on site, which is not stored correctly.
The legal suspension notice prohibits Porthmadog Skip Hire from taking any more wood or degradable waste until it complies with the conditions of its environmental permit. The notice was issued in Autumn 2015 but was subsequently appealed by the company, although it has now been upheld by the Planning Inspectorate.
Porthmadog Skip Hire had previously failed to comply with legal notices from NRW to reduce the amount of waste on site and continued to accept further waste without reducing the amount already present.
North Wales Fire and Rescue Service had also raised significant concerns and has issued a ‘Notification of Major Deficiencies’ which highlights issues which need to be addressed to reduce the risk of fire.
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