Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Pig pollution costs farmer £4,000

Published Date: 22 December 2008
A BRIGG area pig farmer is having to find £4,000 to pay for fines and court costs after allowing slurry waste to run off his farm in three different ways, seriously polluting Froghall Drain, Howsham.

James Edward Andrews, trading as Lincolnshire Pigs pleaded guilty to three charges of causing pollution and was fined £1,000 on each with £1,000 costs.


Cotswold Farm in Cadney Road, Howsham is a pig breeding unit which has up to 4,000 pigs and has been operated by Andrews and a partner for the past four years. He admitted to Environment Agency officers that he had no drainage plan for the farm and did not know if there were land drains in the fields.


Mrs Miriam Tordoff, prosecuting, said the pollution had resulted from a combination of poor management and a lack of knowledge of the site’s drainage.


‘The accumulative environmental impact of the discharges was serious, having a major impact on the invertebrate community in Froghall Drain and extending as far as Kettelby Beck. The polluting effect was evident for at least 10 days,’ she said.


There were three separate leaks into the drain; one from an overflow of a storage lagoon, one from the farm’s sewage treatment plant and a third from a land drain.


The Environment Agency was alerted to the first leak on April 9 when someone reported pollution in the Froghall Drain. Liquid pig waste was running into a tributary of the Drain from a trench which officers traced back to the farm.


There they discovered that the trench led from the slurry lagoon which was full to the top and overflowing down a bank and into the tributary. Andrews started to fill in the trench with soil to prevent any more waste getting into the water.


Officers returned to the farm the following day to take more samples and saw that slurry was leaking from a corner of the slurry lagoon and running across a field before getting into the Drain in several places. On a third visit they found the ground saturated from slurry run-off from the farmyard.


While still investigating the first incident on 10 April, Agency officers also found a blue pipe discharging into Froghall Drain. Previous owners were authorised to discharge fully treated sewage liquid through the pipe from a sewage treatment plant but the consent had not been passed to Andrews and partner and the liquid was not of a suitable cleanliness, Mrs Tordoff told the court. ‘The sewage treatment plant was found to be clean and dry inside,’ she said.


On their third visit to the farm officers also discovered an orange pipe (the subject of the third charge) which was also discharging polluted liquid into the tributary. The source of the discharge could not be traced. ‘Knowledge of the site’s drainage could have prevented the discharge,’ said Mrs Tordoff.


Andrews told investigating officers that he relied on farmers taking the sewage effluent to spread on their fields to keep the level in the lagoon down but because of bad weather in March that had not happened.


There was no system in place to deal with the slurry if the lagoon was full and it had never been that full before.


He said that in the future more slurry would be taken out of the lagoon during the previous summer months to make sure it did not fill up. A contingency plan has now been put in place to ensure this incident does not happen again.


Mrs Tordoff told magistrates: ‘Samples showed that all of the discharges were grossly polluting and had a polluting effect on the entire length of the Froghall Drain downstream of the farm to where it meets with Kettleby Beck and including a short stretch of Kettleby Beck.’


After the hearing Environment Agency officer Keith Hughes-Marshall said: ‘Farm slurry is highly polluting and can have a serious impact on river quality, and aquatic life. Slurry should be stored in properly constructed and well maintained lagoons with sufficient storage capacity. This incident could have been avoided with better site management and planning.’


The Environment Agency offers advice on pollution prevention. If farmers do have any concerns about their slurry storage arrangements, they should contact 08708 506 506.




Andrews, trading as Lincolnshire Pigs, pleaded guilty to:


1. Between 8 April 2008 and 19 April 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely slurry, to enter controlled waters, namely the Froghall Drain at Cotswold Farm, Cadney Road, Howsham, Lincolnshire.


Contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991


(SLURRY LAGOON OVERFLOW)


2. Between 9 April 2008 and 19 April 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely sewage effluent, to enter controlled waters, namely the Froghall Drain at Cotswold Farm, Cadney Road, Howsham, Lincolnshire.


Contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991


(BLUE PIPE - STW DISCHARGE)


3. On or about 18 April 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely organic effluent, to enter controlled waters, namely the Froghall Drain at Cotswold Farm, Cadney Road, Howsham, Lincolnshire.


Contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991


(ORANGE PIPE DISCHARGE)


  • Last Updated: 22 December 2008 10:00 AM
  • Source: Market Rasen Mail
  • Location: Market Rasen

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