Catherine
Burbage - 9-Apr-2008 - Food preparation
company Kitchen Range Foods Ltd has been
fined £7,500 for polluting the Barrack
Brook in Huntingdon with fats from its preparation
processes.
Company managers were
unaware of two fat interceptors on their
Hitchingbrooke Business Park site so they
had not been regularly maintained and had
led to the gross pollution, magistrates
were told.
Kitchen Range Foods
was also ordered to pay £2,225 Environment
Agency costs by Huntingdon Magistrates’
Court who heard that the pollution would
clear naturally but would take some time
to do so because of the slow flow of water
in the brook.
The brook flows around
the edge of the business park and is culverted
under the A14 before flowing through Stukeley
Meadows Housing estate in Huntingdon. There
were reports from residents there to the
Environment Agency of a pollution in August
last year. The brook was murky and blue/grey
and white fungus was growing along the bank.
Close to a point where
the brook was culverted the water was black
with white scum on the top and it smelt
of ammonia, the court was told.
The pollution, which
affected 600 metres of water, was eventually
tracked to the company’s site two weeks
later after extensive tracking and, with
the help of site drainage plans, two oil
interceptors were discovered on site which
the company was unaware existed.
The interceptors were
grossly contaminated with fats and grease
and smelt very sickly, the court was told,
and one of them was so compacted that it
was impossible for a sample to be taken.
Engineer manager Andy Gordon reported to
the Agency that 27 cubic metres of fats
were removed from the two previously non-maintained
fat interceptors as a result of the investigation.
Miss Sarah Allen, prosecuting
for the Environment Agency, told the magistrates
that the company had carried out an internal
investigation but had been unable to establish
how the fat had got into the drains on site.
She said the company
was warned on site in 2002 for a similar
pollution concerning contamination of the
surface water drains . At that time the
existence of the interceptors was ascertained
and Kitchen Range Foods was advised to add
them to the maintenance programme.
Magistrates were told
that the interceptors have now been added
to the regular maintenance programme and
the company is working with an independent
environmental consultant to put together
a more robust system of traceability, systems
and procedures.
After the hearing Environment
Agency officer Matthew Lee said: ‘Kitchen
Range Foods caused a serious, detrimental
effect to the Barrack Brook and nearby residents.
Hopefully this fine will send a clear message
to the company and other companies that
pollution of a watercourse is not acceptable.’
The company pleaded
guilty to:
On or about 5 September
2007 you did cause poisonous, noxious or
polluting matter to enter controlled waters,
namely the Barrack Brook in Huntingdon,
Cambridgeshire.
Contrary to section
85(1) and section 85(6) Water Resources
Act 199.
