Bridget
Norris - 6-Oct-2006 - Cornwall farmer Paul Weaving
was today ordered to pay £1,388 in fines
and costs after he allowed slurry to escape into
the River Camel. The case was brought by the Environment
Agency.
On June 4, 2006 Environment
Agency officers were told that the River Camel
at Dunmere was ‘filthy’ and smelling of sewage.
They found the river was discoloured and contaminated
with farm waste.
The pollution was traced upstream
to a tributary at Poleys Bridge and then to Penhale
Farm.
Paul Weaving admitted the spill had come from
the slurry store on his farm where it had washed
across a yard, into a field drain and along a
small watercourse.
He said he had taken no steps
to warn the Environment Agency of the pollution
or prevent the slurry from reaching the watercourse.
A court heard that the slurry
store had failed after Weaving attempted to increase
its capacity by building up the walls using dung,
sand and earth. This additional raised section
of the store collapsed causing an estimated 112,000
litres of slurry to escape.
Appearing before East Cornwall
magistrates in Liskeard today today, Paul Weaving,
of Penhale Farm, St Tudy, Bodmin, Cornwall, was
fined £500 and ordered to pay £888
costs after pleading guilty to causing polluting
matter, namely slurry, to enter controlled waters,
a tributary of the River Camel, near St Tudy,
Cornwall, contrary to Section 85(1) of the Water
Resources Act 1991.
‘I believe that Mr Weaving was
ignorant with regard to the extent of the pollution
and the potential impact the slurry could have
had on the River Camel,’ said Mark Pilcher, for
the Environment Agency.
‘He did not contact us or even
drive downstream to inspect his pond or the River
Camel to see the extent of the damage.’
In mitigation Mr Weaving said
he was investing £40-80,000 in a new slurry
system.
