Farm Business Fined For Pollution

A farm business was today (July 16, 2007) ordered to pay £2,830 for polluting a tributary of the Abbey River at Southdown Farm, Higher Clovelly, Bideford, Devon. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

South Bower Limited run a diary farm called Southdown Farm, which is situated to the east of Hartland near the headwaters of the Abbey River.

On January 16 2007, the Environment Agency received a call from the company saying that one side of a slurry store had collapsed and 90,000 gallons of slurry had been lost.

The slurry had flowed through the marshy area below the farm and entered a tributary of the Abbey River at several points and a large slug of effluent flowed downstream.

The Abbey River is a coastal stream which flows to the sea in the Hartland Heritage Coast, an area of outstanding natural beauty which is in the Tintagel to Marshland Mouth special area of conservation.

An Environment Agency investigation revealed the river was heavily polluted and when tested for ammonia showed it was three times higher than the level that is lethal to fish. The dissolved oxygen in the water had also fallen to a level that kills salmonoids.

A number of dead brown trout were found down stream of Hartland and at Pattard Bridge.

'This was a serious pollution incident that illustrates how important it is for farmers to regularly check their slurry stores and carry out any replacements or repairs,' said Phil Siddall for the Environment Agency.

South Bower Limited, of Southdown Farm, Higher Clovelly, Bideford, was given a conditional discharge for two years and ordered to pay the full costs of £2,830 by North Devon Magistrates after it pleaded guilty to causing noxious, poisonous or polluting matter to enter a tributary of the Abbey River contrary to Section 85 (1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.

In passing sentence, the Magistrates said they recognised that the incident was a genuine accident and the penalty took account of the financial problems faced by diary farmers in the South West. 

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