Chemical breach sees Shropshire abbatoir fined £100,000
An abattoir has been fined £100,000 for releasing too many chemicals into Shropshire sewers.
Euro Quality Lambs (EQL) was hit with the fine at Worcester Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to breaching its waste release levels into Severn Trent sewers early last year.
The family business, based in Dale Street, Craven Arms, is a lamb and sheep abattoir capable of processing 15,000 carcasses a week
Teams from Severn Trent’s waste business worked to trace where increased levels of phosphorus and ammonia found at Craven Arms Sewage Treatment Works had been coming from, tracing it back to EQL’s site.
The fine was split between failed samples taken at the treatment works, with the judge deciding the phosphorus release was the biggest failure and awarding the highest fine, of £20,000, for this. He then fined two further failures of the same sample at £5,000 each.
The second sample was categorised as reckless culpability, which resulted in a £70,000 fine, having taken three additional failed samples into consideration.
James Jesic, managing director of production at Severn Trent, said: “It’s important that we prosecute companies which seem to believe that legal limits on chemical release don’t apply to them.
“We have a duty to protect our treatment works, our customers and the environment and big fines such as this send out a clear message to any business contemplating doing something similar.”
Severn Trent was also awarded costs of more than £11,000.
