| UK. South West Wales waste management company fined £60,000 for pollution offences |
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| Wednesday, 08 November 2006 | |
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Environmental news: Agresol Ltd, a waste management company from South West Wales was fined a total of £54,000 and ordered to pay costs of over £2,500 for polluting rivers and mis-handling water treatment sludge waste. Two of Agresol's directors were fined a further £3,000 each in the case brought by Environment Agency Wales at Ammanford Magistrates Court on Monday 6 October 2006. The waste was produced at Welsh Water's Felindre water treatment works and Agresol was contracted to spread the sludge on agricultural land as a soil conditioner. On three occasions, due to the poor supervision of the spreading operation, the waste was allowed to run off the land and enter a river. Officers from Environment Agency Wales attended all three incidents, one on a tributary of the Afon Llan at Llangyfelach and two on the Afon Lash in the Llandybie area. Each time they found that the watercourses were polluted with the fine iron rich sediment. This material smothers the bed of the stream killing any aquatic life and hindering fish from spawning. The source of the pollution was traced back to Agresol's operation. The Company pleaded guilty to three offences contrary to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and a further three offences contrary to the Water Resources Act 1991. Due to the severity of the pollution, Environment Agency Wales prosecuted Agresol under both waste management and water pollution legislation. They also decided to prosecute Agresol's directors in relation to the third incident in view of the Company's apparent failure to learn from the earlier failings and improve working practices to prevent further pollution. Speaking after the court case, an Environment Agency Wales spokesperson said: "These were serious pollution incidents. We have been working hard towards improved water quality in all our rivers and any pollution is a step backwards for the rivers affected. We had hoped that Agresol would have learned the lesson after the first incident. We were very disappointed that they ignored this 'wake up call' and allowed this waste to escape on another two occasions. "We will not tolerate the pollution of our streams and rivers or the mis-management of waste. We were very pleased at the levels of fines imposed by the court and hope that this serves as a lesson to others who might be tempted to cut corners when handling wastes or other potentially polluting materials." |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 November 2006 ) |
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