Environment Agency agrees first Enforcement Undertaking for odour pollution
An Enforcement Undertaking has been agreed with Renewi UK Services Ltd (Renewi) in Barrow-in-Furness, after the company was suspected of causing odours. The site had a history of odour complaints.
The site concerned takes municipal waste from Cumbria. Waste is processed to remove recyclates and residual waste is converted to refuse derived fuel.
Local businesses and residents first started complaining of odours in 2014. Complaints reported were investigated by the Environment Agency. Additional measures have since been introduced by Renewi to minimise the impact of odour.
The Environment Agency may affect Enforcement Undertakings offered by operators as an alternative to prosecution for certain offences. Enforcement Undertakings allow those who are suspected of offences to restore the environment and to take steps to prevent recurrence.
Enforcement Undertaking
The Enforcement Undertaking offered by Renewi included to increase the biofilter stack height, revisions to the management of processes and increasing sampling and monitoring undertaken.
The operator also donated £60,000 to a local environmental charity, made compensation payments to a number of local businesses and individuals and paid the Environment Agency’s investigation costs.
The Enforcement Undertaking was completed on 24 May 2018.
Waste company fined for supplying contaminated waste
Glebe Quarry Limited, which trades as 1st Call Skips, has been fined for illegally handling and disposing of hazardous waste.
Offences occurred across three sites in Cornwall, including the company’s own waste transfer station, a nearby farm and a site operated by a china clay company.
The Environment Agency had earlier advised the company to improve the company’s waste transfer station at Glebe Quarry after drainage and concreting was found to be ‘inadequate’. No action was taken so the Environment Agency issued an enforcement notice requiring the improvements works to be carried out.
Glebe Quarry Limited appealed, but the appeal was dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate; forcing the company to carry out the improvements that were finally completed in November 2016.
Further checks of the company by the Environment Agency identified that more than 2,400 tonnes of waste had been dumped illegally. Some of this waste was contaminated with asbestos. Glebe Quarry Limited continued illegally dumping waste at the transfer station despite being warned they would be committing an offence if they continued to do so.
In 2015, the defendant also sent waste to a site for use in restoring china clay spoil heaps. The material should have been suitable for this purpose, but was later found to be contaminated with asbestos.
The asbestos was discovered before the waste was spread and the loads were returned to Glebe Quarry. Nearly 50 tonnes of hazardous material was removed by Glebe Quarry Limited but was never traced as no paperwork was kept.
Glebe Quarry Limited also supplied waste to local farms for use in low-risk activities, such as the construction of farm tracks. This was done under an exemption. The waste supplied to one farm was found to be heavily contaminated with asbestos and cost nearly £120,000 to clean-up.
Breaches
The company pleaded guilty to five separate offences under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010, Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005, and Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Penalty
Glebe Quarry Limited was fined £26,500. The company was also ordered to pay £17,000 compensation to a farmer where waste contaminated with asbestos had been dumped on his land.
In addition to the financial penalty, the court ordered that Glebe Quarry Limited informs the Environment Agency which sites they are sending their waste to. Glebe Quarry Limited must also remedy the sites they have polluted.
Landfill operator and waste management company fined £37,000 and £12,000 respectively for landfilling inappropriate waste and failings in Duty of Care
Muirhouse Landfill Limited in Strathblane was licensed for the landfilling of inert waste. In 2009 SEPA was notified that the site was receiving inappropriate waste. On visiting the site, officers found timber, plastics and polystyrene, which the site was not licensed to accept.
The site was instructed to remove the material (which was done) and informed that steps would be taken to ensure it did not happen again. However, following a further complaint in 2011, SEPA officers witnessed waste being accepted outside the times authorised by the licence and without being checked before disposal.
An enforcement notice was served in relation to 15 breaches of permit conditions, requiring these be remedied.
Landfill Monitoring
Groundwater results were submitted by the operator, as required in their permit. These showed that levels of Chemical Oxygen Demand were between 12 and 18 times the permitted limit.
SEPA’s scientists carried out full environmental monitoring of gas, soil and leachate on and around the site and found the levels were typical of those found at non-inert landfills. As the site did not have the infrastructure in place to deal with that type of waste, SEPA suspended the licence on the grounds the site presented an imminent risk of serious pollution.
The suspension notice required the operator to fully assess the site to quantify the extent of the problem and remove the risk of pollution. The requirements in the statutory notice have not been complied with to date and the suspension remains in place.
Duty of Care Failures
In a further prosecution Dow Waste Management Limited (which recently changed its name to Dow Group Limited) was found to have failed to properly describe their waste when completing waste transfer notes, and failing to have a system to identify documentation that was not properly completed.
Breaches
Muirhouse Landfill Limited pled guilty to two charges of failing to comply with six different conditions of their permit, one of which was that the site could only be used to landfill inert waste.
Dow Waste Management Limited pled guilty to failing to properly describe their waste when completing waste transfer notes and failing to have a system in place to identify problems. This is contrary to the Section 34(1)(aa) and (6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Penalty
Muirhouse Landfill Limited was fined £37,000.
Dow Waste Management Limited was fined £12,000.
|
