Dave Ferguson - 22-Jan-2007 - A housing association has
been fined £14,000 after admitting polluting a river
with heating oil at one location and breaching its consent
to discharge treated sewage effluent in another.
Cottsway Housing Association Ltd, of Witney, pleaded guilty
on 19 January to one offence of polluting the River Dorn
in Oxfordshire on a day between 5 and 21 September 2005
contrary to Section 85 (1) of the Water Resources Act 1991.
The association also pleaded guilty to five offences of
breaching its consent to discharge treated sewage effluent
into the Langford Brook in Oxfordshire between 28 September
2005 and 28 April 2006 contrary to Section 85(6) of the
Water Resources Act 1991.
Bicester Magistrates' Court fined the company £2,000
for each of the five offences of breaching its consent to
discharge and a further £4,000 for the oil pollution
amounting to £14,000 and ordered it to pay costs of
£3,087.
The court heard that the Environment Agency received several
telephone calls from concerned members of the public on
15 September 2005 reporting a strong smell of fuel and a
large film of oil on the surface of the River Dorn at Mill
Lane, Middle Barton.
Environment Agency arrived at the site the same afternoon
and found a thick film of oil on the river near Mill Lane
and noted a strong smell of fuel in the air.
In trying to trace the source of the oil leak, the officers
accompanied a local landowner across his land and discovered
the fuel appeared to be discharging into the river, from
a land drain situated in a field adjacent to Holliers Farm.
To try to prevent the spread of the oil downstream, the
officers placed absorbent booms across the river at the
ford in Mill Lane. Within the next few days the booms had
collected a thick layer of oil and as they were saturated,
the Environment Agency emergency work force attended the
site to replace them.
Subsequently officers traced the spill to its source, an
oil tank in the rear garden of a property in Jervis Close,
Middle Barton, which was owned and managed by Cottsway Housing
Association.
Officers then spoke to the company and asked for measures
to be taken to stop the source of the leak.
The tenant of the house had made a report regarding the
leaking tank on the 5 September 2005, which was followed
by further reports of the leakage on the 11 and 12 September.
An engineer attended the site following the later reports
but failed to stop the leak. It was only stopped when he
returned to the property on 20 September to cut and disconnect
the fuel line.
Karen Roberts, an Environment Officer from the Environment
Agency, said: "By the time the oil leak was dealt with
properly it had caused significant pollution in the River
Dorn.
"Sadly this delay in the response by Cottsway Housing
Association meant that oil leaked into the river, potentially
causing harm to aquatic life of this watercourse."
The company was also fined for breaching its consent to
discharge treated sewage effluent into Langford Brook in
Langford, Oxfordshire, between 28 September 2005 and 28
April 2006.
The court heard that the company holds a consent allowing
them to discharge treated sewage effluent into the Langford
Brook from the Elms Sewage Treatment works.
The company has held the consent to discharge from the
site in Langford since April 2001 and since then there has
been a history of problems and failures. The company received
a warning letter after a sample taken on 20 May 2005 failed
its consent limits.
The site went back to operating within its limits until
28 September 2005, when a sample again exceeded the agreed
limit. Four further samples taken until 28 April 2006 also
failed their consent limits.