Article form Environment Agency web-site: news.
Compost company fined 22,000 GBP
County Mulch has today been fined a total of 22,000GBP and ordered to pay full Environmen t Agency costs of 12,328GBP after admitting causing pollution and operating without a permit at two separate sites near Bury St Edmunds.
In June last year waste liquid from composting polluted a stream leading into the River Little Ouse at Hepworth near Bury St Edmunds.
The pollution, which affected the stream for at least three kilometres, led Environment Agency investigators to Shepherd Grove Industrial Estate and to Stanton Composting Facility operated by County Mulch Ltd.
Bury St Edmunds Magistrates’ Court was told that the pollution could have been avoided as the site operators knew there was an ongoing problem with a sump pump and the amount of composting waste liquid on the site was an indicator that pollution was possible.
Mrs Anne-Lise McDonald, prosecuting, told magistrates evidence of sewage fungus in the stream also indicated the pollution had been ongoing for several days.
When Agency officers visited the industrial estate they had found two lagoons containing black water and with bubbles on the top. One officer described the smell as ‘almost unbearable’.
There was also water and waste water on the yard, some of which was overflowing from a containment area, and running into open gully drains.
Director or County Mulch Mr John Jardine reported to the Agency that the pump in the sump had been blocked with wood but that it was regularly inspected and since the incident a second pump had been installed in the sump as a back up. The company has also installed a high level alarm on the sump.
In a separate incident in July last year an Environment Agency officer noticed a stockpile of waste at Great Ashfield Airfield near Bury St Edmunds and discovered a composting operation taking place without a permit.
Paperwork obtained from County Mulch Ltd showed that about 3,017 tonnes of waste was received and treated at the airfield between 23 July and 24 December last year. The material had come from the Stanton Composting Facility.
The waste at the airfield was not stored properly and liquid was running off a broken concrete base into surrounding grass and litter had not been prevented from blowing into neighbouring fields.
The company accepted that it should not have been there and transferred it back to the original site and employed litter pickers to clear any waste from the site, the court was told.
After the hearing Environment Agency officer Melanie Roberts said: ‘It was obvious from what could be seen at Stanton Composting that there were problems and the company should have acted sooner to stop this pollution.
‘Operations like this need strict controls so that there is no adverse affect on the surrounding environment.’
CountyMulch pleaded guilty to:
1. On or about 11 June 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely compost effluent to enter controlled waters, namely a tributary of the River Little Ouse at Hepworth, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.
Contrary to section 85(1) and section 85(6) Water Resources Act 1991.
Fined £12,000
2. Between 22 July 2008 and 24 December 2008 on land at Great Ashfield Airfield, Great Ashfield near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk you did operate a regulated facility, namely a waste operation for the composting of waste, without being authorised by an environmental permit granted under Regulation 13 of the of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007.
Contrary to Regulation 12 and 38(1)(a) Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007.
Fined £10,000