Farmer Richard Weeks was ordered to pay £1,955 in fines and costs after slurry escaped into a tributary of the Abbey River at Hartland, Devon. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.
The spill was reported to the Agency on March 22, 2007 and investigating Environment Officers traced the slurry to Baxworthy Farm, Baxworthy in Bideford, Devon, owned by Richard Weeks.
Cattle slurry being spread onto fields by a contractor had run off and into adjacent streams.
The investigation revealed this was caused by a number of factors including a compacted field unable to soak up the slurry, overnight rain and overspreading, which led to the fields being saturated.
The Abbey River is a high quality river that is known to support significant populations of salmon and these levels of ammonia have the potential to harm the habitat living in the river.
‘The discharge of slurry was stronger than crude sewage and would have been toxic to fish and other aquatic life for some way down the stream,’ said Sean McKay from the Environment Agency.
‘Richard Weeks has been fully co-operative during the investigation. The farm owner made efforts to remedy the effects of the pollution but it could have been avoided if the fields had been checked after the rain and they had ploughed in after the spreading. Farmers must take extreme care with streams and rivers on their farms.’
Appearing before Barnstaple magistrates, Richard Weeks was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £955 costs after pleading guilty to one offence of causing polluting matter to enter controlled waters contrary to section 85(1) of the Water Resources Act 1991.
