10/04/2006
- The Environment Agency has prosecuted the National
Trust for allowing sewage to leave Bodiam Castle
near Robertsbridge and enter the River Rother
without receiving the correct treatment.
The National Trust appeared
before Hastings Magistrates Court on Monday 10
April 2006 and pleaded guilty to the offence.
As a result the company was fined £5,000
and was ordered to pay costs of £720 to
the Environment Agency.
Under section 85(6) of the Water
Resources Act 1991, Bodiam Castle has a consent
that allows for the discharge of treated sewage
and effluent to the River Rother. To ensure the
environment is protected, the Environment Agency
sets conditions on the under which this sewage
and effluent can be discharged. The National Trust,
the owners of Bodiam Castle, contravened a condition
of this consent.
The court heard that in August
2004 there was a meeting between the Environment
Agency and the National Trust regarding the sewage
treatment plant at Bodiam Castle. The Environment
Agency stressed the treatment plant should be
compliant by the summer of 2005, since water levels
are very low in the summer and a breach of consent
would therefore have had a greater impact at that
time of year.
On 23 August 2005, Environment
Agency Officers took a sample of the discharge
from the castle’s sewage treatment plant. The
sample was analysed and the Biochemical Oxygen
Demand Level and the suspended solids level were
both found to be nearly four times the agreed
consent figure. This demonstrated that the plant
could not cope during the peak period for visitors
to the castle.
BOD is the measure of the amount
of oxygen taken up by bacteria entering any waters.
The higher the level the more oxygen is stripped
from those waters to the detriment of any life
which might be living in them. Suspended solids
can affect photosynthesis and can smother the
wildlife that live in the natural silts of the
river bed.
Commenting on the case, Peter
Bilbrough of the Environment Agency’s Legal team
said: "This showed that once again the plant
could not cope during the peak period for visitors
to the castle. It therefore seems as though our
warning from the year before had not been heeded.
However, visitor numbers cannot
be an excuse for this breach of consent especially
since in this day and age all those who handle
or use polluting or potentially polluting matter
are expected to take care to ensure that there
is no risk that the environment will suffer."
In mitigation the National
Trust said they took the matter very seriously
and the organisation is spending £200,000
to rectify the problems at the sewage treatment
plant as Bodiam Castle has 170,000 visitors per
year. The National Trust spends £160 million
per year regarding its environment management
responsibilities.
The National Trust also stated
that upgrading the sewage treatment works had
sadly taken a long time, as there is a lengthy
approval process.
The consent was originally issued
to the National Trust in April 1998. It was made
subject to a number of conditions one of which
is that the level of Biochemical Oxygen Demand
in the discharge should not exceed 20mg/l and
that the level of Suspended Solids should not
exceed 30mg/l. These figures are chosen by the
Environment Agency bearing in mind the impact
on the river and the load imposed by others who
discharge effluent into this important watercourse.
Environment Agency officers
took a sample of the discharge from the sewage
treatment works at 13.55 hours on 23 August 2005.
When analysed this showed a BOD result of 77.7mg/l
and a suspended solids level of 109mg/l – both
of these results being nearly four times the consented
level.
In 2005 the National Trust
was formally cautioned for similar matters. A
formal caution was signed on behalf of the National
Trust on 21 November 2005, regarding two breaches
of consent at Chartwell Restaurant at Westerham
in Kent. On 28 April 2005 and 5 August 2005, levels
of BOD were 90.1mg/l and 91.4mg/l and suspended
solids were 99mg/l and 417mg/l as against consent
limits of 30mg/l BOD and 40mg/l for suspended
solids.
