Developers dumped sewage into stream

[Maple Lodge]

Published Date: 25 July 2009
A CONSORTIUM of developers have been fined £24,000 after polluting a stream for 500 metres with sewage from their treatment works.
Allison Homes Eastern Ltd, Persimmon Homes (East Midlands) Ltd and Stamford Homes Ltd, who operate the treatment works in Deeping St Nicholas, near Spalding, were warned by the Environment Agency in August 2007 and April 2008 for breaching their discADVERTISEMENTharge consent.

Each company pleaded guilty at Grantham Magistrates’ Court to causing the pollution in April 2008 on Thursday and each was fined £8,000 and ordered to share costs of £2,208.

On April 24 last year, the court heard how Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board reported that Station Farm Dyke No 2 at New Road was polluted.

Environment Agency officers described the stream as “turbid and smelling strongly of sewage” and traced the pollution back to an outfall pipe at the sewage treatment works in New Road, from where they took samples.

These showed levels of ammonia to be more than 10 times higher than normal and as having four times as many solids as there should be.

A Stamford Homes representative met the officers at the site and explained that new contractors had taken over maintenance of the treatment works in March.

The previous contractors had initially visited the site once a month from July 2003 to carry out desludging but since March 2007 they had carried out desludging twice a month because of raised levels of solids in the waste liquid.

Representatives from the three companies agreed that there had been some problems with staff reductions and office closures due to the decline in the housing market, and, as a result, some records had been difficult to obtain and check.

There had been no formal written agreement between the consortium as to compliance with the discharge consent, the court heard.

Representatives of the companies told the agency that the exact cause of the failure at the site had not been known but they believed a power failure had contributed largely to it.

However, the agency’s view was that the lack of maintenance, particularly the lack of desludging for some five weeks, was also a major cause of the incident.

After the hearing, Environment Agency officer Richard Williams said: “We aim to protect water and wildlife by regulating discharges from sites such as these. This prosecution demonstrates that those companies who pollute will incur serious penalties for doing so.”

Since the incident the consortium has changed its procedures to ensure a similar incident doesn’t occur again.

Developers dumped sewage into stream - Peterborough Today