A LANDFILL operator in Llanidloes has less than a month to pay more than £80,000 in fines, for allowing effluent to enter a tributary of the River Severn.
Sundorne Products (Llanidloes) Ltd, based in Tylwch, was found guilty after a four-day trial at Brecon Magistrates’ Court in December last year.
The company, which is in charge of the Bryn Posteg Landfill site and owned by the Potters Group, was convicted of four charges, including offences of polluting a stream, one by surface water and one by ground water.
At the sentencing hearing on Monday, January 24, at Brecon Magistrates Court, the company was ordered to pay fines and costs of £83,722.03, to be paid within 21 days.
Two other charges related to the company failing to comply with the terms and conditions of its permit – exceeding permitted ammoniacal nitrogen emissions, and failing to report these emissions, which resulted in a pollution incident.
Prosecuting on behalf of the Environment Agency, counsel Chris Stables told the court that on January 25, 2008, water samples were taken at the site and from the stream which showed ‘higher than permitted’ ammonia levels.
Four days later, subsequent investigations found that the pollution of the Nant y Bradnant stream was continuing to occur, though at a slightly lower level.
Evidence of the stream’s pollution was seen by officers in the form of ‘extensive growth of sewage fungus’.
The first 300 metres of the stream from the area of the landfill site had an extensive thick covering across the bed and banks, the court heard.
Pollution was evident along the entire length of the Nant y Bradnant, up to the confluence with the River Severn – a total distance of more than three kilometres.
During a site visit by officers, on January 29, 2008, evidence was seen of system failures onsite.
According to the Environment Agency, by causing this pollution incident, the company breached its permit conditions relating to emission limits, allowing polluting substances to enter surface and groundwater and then failed to notify the Environment Agency without delay of a significant pollution incident.
The Bryn Posteg Landfill site, owned and operated by Sundorne, operated under the terms of a Pollution Prevention and Control Permit.
The permit was designed to protect the local environment, including the Nant y Bradnant stream, which arises from the point where the surface water from the landfill leaves the site.
The permit established and put in place limits as to how much ammonia and other substances could be discharged from the site into the stream.
“We’ve recently given approval to the company for the installation of a reed bed system at the landfill to treat surface water,” explained Tony Leaky, Environment Agency site officer.
“This investment by Sundorne will help to minimise the risk of further events, such as those leading to this prosecution."
In mitigation, it was said that, though polluting, the discharges had not been either poisonous or noxious, and that there had been no risk of harm to human health.
The course of the River Severn itself had not been polluted, and the pollution of the Nant y Bradnant had persisted for a matter of weeks only.
The charges were brought by the Environment Agency under Section 85(1) of the Water Resources Act 1991 and Regulation 38(1)(b) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007.
Before it was owned by Potters Group, Sundorne appeared before Welshpool Magistrates Court in 2005 when they were fined more than £40,000 for silt pollution at Bryn Posteg.