Renewable Energy company contaminates the environment

The King’s Lynn Magistrates Court have been kept busy with complaints, after a new renewable energy business polluted more than seven kilometres of a stream in Terrington St Clements. Hay Green was polluted with a strong onion smelling, brown liquid that was the consequence of an overflowing containment ditch and land drains.

The pollution was a result of CH4 Power Limited setting up an anaerobic digestion plant at Moat Road Farm in Terrington St Clement, for the recycling of organic waste to generate electricity. The condition of Hay Green was reported to Environment Agency, in which they found the stream had rich brown coloured water running into it and puddles of the liquid on a farm track, some of which had small pieces of vegetable in it. Further downstream the Agency found that the water had turned black and septic.

Claire Bentley, prosecuting for Environment Agency stated that the pollution had been ongoing for at least two months, resulting in an extensive clean-up that was carried out in March 2010. Ms Bentley told the magistrates that CH4 Power Limited had admitted to “running before it could walk” and that they had failed to survey the reliability of the drainage before storing organic matter on the site.

Prosecutor Bentley said: “They stockpiled waste vegetables, mostly onions, from the local food processing industry; in inadequate storage facilities... there was no separate system for dealing with surface water."

An Environment Agency officer found the land drain was still discharging in March due to difficulties in locating connections between the site and the watercourse. The discharge stopped by the end of March, and part of the watercourse had been cleaned, but residents in the area were still complaining and the time allocated to the clean-up was extended.

A drainage plan had been produced by the CH4 Power Limited in August, which showed details of the water flow; illustrating that the liquid from containment ditch passed into an old land drainage system and cross-connected with a land drainage system, which discharged into the stream. However, this information failed to be given to the Agency when an officer first visited the site in January.

Adrian Venni, managing director of CH4 Power Limited defended the company stating that the storage of onions was far greater than expected due to the restrictions caused by the digester on site not working. He continued that the water flow passed through unknown pipes, but as soon as they were aware of the pollution the company took measures in hope it would control the situation.

Environment Agency officer David Batterham said: "This incident shows how important it is to plan ahead, ensure that any drainage system serving industrial and agricultural sites are designed and sized appropriately and are tested to ensure that they are fit for purpose.

"When vegetable matter is stored it starts to compost and break down, producing a concentrated liquor which is extremely polluting, hundreds of times more so than sewage. It takes very little of this sort of material to completely decimate our streams and rivers."

CH4 Power Limited was fined a total of £5,000 and ordered to pay full Environment Agency costs of £7,284, bringing the total cost to £12,284.

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Environmental Agency calls for secondary containment facilities

The Environment Agency recently studied the benefits of secondary containment for domestic oil storage installations and concluded that its introduction could prevent up to 640 pollution-related incidents annually. This translates to a public saving of around £1m per annum. The agency has since called for the compulsory introduction of secondary containment at all new and replacement home-based storage installations in England and Wales.

In a report that followed the DCLG review of The Building Regulations Approved Document J, The Environment Agency also made calls for better regulation of domestic installations. In particular, that underground oil tanks should be regulated under amendments to the Buildings Regulation. In addition, they urged that oil storage solutions at residential locations should be given the same level of environmental protection as those on corporate and public premises.

The report follows warnings by the Environment Agency to residents in the South East of England to check oil tanks for damage caused by sub-zero temperatures. Following extended periods of cold weather insurers are often hit with a spate of claims from homeowners who discover an oil spill. In many cases using secondary containment such as a bunded oil storage tank would have prevented the breach.

In the corporate world, the lack of compulsory second containment has been controversial in recent years. In November 2009, power company Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution was fined £20,000 for an oil spill that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency said could have been prevented with adequate secondary containment.

The Environment Agency’s report, like previous calls for compulsory secondary containment, has been met with broad support from the oil heating industry.