Salisbury Journal

Water company fined over oil spill

From the Gazette & Herald, first published Thursday 23rd Sep 2004.

GAZETTE & HERALD: WESSEX Water, whose slogan is clear commitment, has been ordered to pay £7,800 in fines and costs after polluting the River Avon.

The Environment Agency was tipped-off about the leak on March 21 by a member of the public who had seen oil floating on the river, Chippenham magistrates heard.

An agency officer visited the company's depot in Westmead Lane, but found it locked.

At 9.45am, Wessex Water rang the Environment Agency's emergency hotline to say diesel oil had come from its Westmead depot.

By that time, some of the diesel had already entered the Avon and oil was seen spreading across the river at the footbridge around 50 metres downstream.

Subsequent inquiries by Wessex Water revealed that a dispensing nozzle on a 200-gallon fuel tank inside the depot had been left running, allowing 100 gallons of red diesel to escape across the depot yard and into a riverbank outfall.

Environment Agency staff used absorbent booms and special clay mats to contain the oil and windy weather helped eventually disperse the diesel but the incident posed a significant pollution risk, magistrates were told.

Wessex Water pleaded guilty to allowing the diesel to enter the river, contrary to the Water Resources Act 1991. The company was fined £6,500 and ordered to pay £1,305 costs.

Environment Agency spokeswoman Jane Drew said: "This was an accident waiting to happen.

"The oil tank did not comply with the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) Regulations 2001 and posed a significant pollution risk. Special care must be taken when oil tanks are located near water courses."

This is not the first time Wessex Water has been fined for polluting the Avon.

In October 2000 the company was ordered to pay nearly £2,500 in fines and costs following a discharge of sewage into the river in Malmesbury.

The firm was also fined almost £12,000 for polluting two streams at Minety, near Brinkworth in 1998 and 1999.

No one from Wessex Water was available for comment.

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