COMPANY PAY €1,500 FOR POLLUTION

27/06/2005 - A company, based in Scotland was given a Conditional Discharge for three years after pleading guilty at Wrexham Magistrates' Court last week (9 June) to polluting the Singrett Brook at Llay between 15 and 18 January 2004. Cymru Country Feeds Limited whose registered office is at Queen's Road, Aberdeen were also ordered to pay the £360 legal costs of Environment Agency Wales who brought the prosecution. The company had already paid the Agency's investigating costs of £1,226.
The offence was contrary to section 85 of the Water Resources Act 1991.

The court heard how a tank containing vegetable oil at the Company's premises on the Llay Industrial Estate had overflowed while a delivery driver was filling it on 16 January 2004. An estimated 7,000 litres had entered a bunded area after the tank's alarm had failed due to a worn washer. The oil had then escaped around pipe work through the bund wall into a trench, from where it entered a foul drain connected to the foul sewer. It is then believed to have solidified in the sewer, causing it to overflow into the brook.
Although the oil was not toxic it had coated half a kilometre stretch of the brook through Nant y Gaer wood turning the water yellow. Once the company realised that the oil was from its premises they had taken measures to clean up the brook, and had co-operated with the Agency's investigation.
Ann Weedy, Agency Environment Management Team Leader said after the case: 'This incident highlights the need to ensure that on site spill prevention measures are not only in place, but are regularly maintained. This incident in the Singrett Brook could easily have been avoided and will not be tolerated by the Environment Agency.'