A Spalding based potato company has been fined more than £20,000 after pleading guilty to discharging contaminated water into a nearby dyke.
Spalding Potatoes Ltd was prosecuted by the Environment Agency after waste water was discharged into the dyke, which then fed into Wells Drain, turning it a milky pink colour and leaving it highly polluted.
The company has a licence to discharge waste water from vegetable processing into the dyke, which runs alongside its premises, but only once it has been through a treatment plant on the premises and cleaned up to an acceptable level.
Spalding Magistrates Court fined the company £17,000 and ordered them to pay £3,166 costs after they admitted on or about 8 October 2004, causing poisonous, noxious or polluting matter to enter controlled waters, contrary to section 85(1) Water Resources Act 1991.
In October last year the company told an Environment Agency officer they had an electrical failure in the treatment system which led to a discharge of untreated waste water into the dyke.
The culverted dyke feeds into the Childers South Drove Drain and then into the Wells Drain where the discoloured water was seen by a passer-by as it ran under the A16 at Spalding.
An Environment Agency officer investigated and traced the pollution to the culverted dyke alongside the premises of Spalding Potatoes. Samples taken showed that the effect of the waste was highly polluting. The pink colour was caused by carotene from carrot washings.
The company told investigating officers that the electrical fault had caused a pump failure resulting in up to 30,000 litres of waste water escaping.
Simon Bonney, an Environment Agency team leader, said the receiving watercourse was one of the worst polluted that he had seen in fifteen years.
“All companies should take great care in their off-site discharges but effluent from the food processing industry in particular can be highly polluting as this case shows.
“It demonstrates the need for proper maintenance and good housekeeping at all times and is a reminder that there is no room for complacency where there is a chance that the environment may be put a risk.”
