A North Yorkshire property company was fined a total of £2,000 for polluting a stream with sewage at Whixley, between Harrogate and York, at Harrogate Magistrates Court today, 4 January 2008.
Kirsten Properties of Wembley, Middlesex, was also ordered to pay costs of £1,413.20 to the Environment Agency, which brought the case.
The court heard that Environment Agency officers investigated a complaint about pollution at Whixley Cut, a tributary of the River Nidd at Brotes Lane, Whixley, which was used by livestock.
Kirsten Properties have permission to discharge treated sewage effluent from Tancred Hall Nursing Home into the stream, with specific conditions on the levels of oxygen and solids.
Above the effluent discharge point the water was clear and unaffected, whilst below there was a large amount of fungal growth on the stream bed. The court heard that the Environment Agency officers said the water was discoloured, grey and smelt of sewage for a distance of 350 metres.
The court heard that when samples of the affected water were analysed it was found that the conditions of the discharge permission had been exceeded by a large margin, a margin of over 400 per cent in the case of the water deoxygenation level.
In mitigation it was said that the breaches of the conditions had occurred due to the system having become overloaded. The offence was not deliberate and there had been no financial gain. There were no previous environmental offences.
John Crowl of the Environment Agency said: “Where poorly maintained and operated treatment plants result in pollution we will always carry out the appropriate enforcement response, which in this case was prosecution.”
