Two companies fined for polluting Worcestershire brook
They've been ordered to pay £90,000.
Two companies have been fined after being prosecuted by the Environment Agency for causing trade effluent to pollute 3km of a Worcestershire brook.
The companies have been ordered to pay fines and costs in excess of £90,000.
At Worcester Crown Court on 24 October 2024, Elisabeth The Chef (ETC), a food manufacturer operating in Lower Broadheath, and the engineering company, Civil Environmental Project Services Ltd (CEPS) of Bidford-upon-Avon, were sentenced for causing the discharge into the Laugherne Brook, in September 2017.
ETC was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £52,000. CEPS was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £20,000.
The Court was told that the discharge caused the deaths of a significant number of fish and that it followed a series of human and corporate failings.
The manufacturing process at ETC produces around 40,000 gallons per day of trade effluent and human sewage.
On 1 September 2017, an employee of CEPS attended the ETC site’s pumping station to conduct routine maintenance. Following completion of the maintenance work, the employee failed to switch the pumps within the pumping station back on.
As a result, trade effluent built up in the pumpwell rather than being sent to the foul sewer. This caused an overflow of trade effluent from the pumping station into a containment lagoon.
The containment lagoon filled up and then discharged the pollutant through a broken sluice gate and into a ditch running alongside the factory.
This pollution discharge flowed from the ditch into the Laugherne Brook, flowing towards Worcester and the River Teme in the south of the city.
The situation was compounded by the same CEPS employee reporting to ETC on Monday 4 September 2017, whilst the pollution was going on, stating that it was ‘working ok’.
Officers carried out water quality testing and found that there had been a severe short-term impact covering some 3km of the Laugherne Brook.
Some 86 dead fish were counted in the accessible sections of the Brook, including brown trout, bullhead, dace, and gudgeon.
Hundreds of fish were estimated to have been killed as a result of the incident.
ETC, a company with previous convictions for environmental offending, initially blamed CEPS for the incident.
But subsequently accepted that it had failed to put in checks and procedures to ensure its on-site pumping station was working correctly.
The company also accepted that it had failed to conduct day-to-day physical checks of its pumping station and containment lagoon.
In sentencing, the Court remarked that the state of rivers were ‘at the front of the public consciousness’ and that this was a ‘serious breach of law’.
The Court noted that ETC had been under different ownership when the pollution event occurred. But the new owners were taking the company’s environmental responsibilities seriously.
The Court also noted that there have been no further pollution events at the site since 2017.
CEPS admitted responsibility for the incident at an early stage.
The Court noted that the company’s engagement and co-operation with the Environment Agency’s investigation was ‘impressive.’ It had no previous convictions of any kind.
Kelly Horsley, an Environment Officer for the Environment Agency in the West Midlands, said:
“We welcome this sentence as this was a serious pollution which caused considerable disruption besides fish deaths.
“The Environment Agency will pursue any company that fails to uphold the law or protect nature and will continue to press for the strongest possible penalties.
“Failure to comply with these legal requirements is a serious offence that can damage the environment and harm human health.
“If anyone has environmental concerns they should call our 24/7 hotline on 0800 80 70 60 or Crimestoppers anonymously and in confidence on 0800 555 111.”