Processor fined for water pollution

Bakkavör-owned Mariner Foods based in Grimsby has been fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £1,710 costs for contaminating local water, killing much of the aquatic life.

The milky white appearance of Grimsby’s Towns Croft Drain and its stench of rotten eggs led a member of the public to alert the Environment Agency to the pollution on August 28 last year. “Food waste has a severe and detrimental impact in water because it uses up dissolved oxygen as it breaks down,” explained the Agency.

The Agency traced the problem back to Mariner Foods where UHT milk was dripping from a skip and flowing into a drain. On a follow-up visit the next day, an Agency officer saw that during cleaning of the yard, food was being flushed into the surface water drain. He then found pasta, rice, carrots and beans in Towns Croft Drain and told the company to stop allowing food waste into the drain.

However, another visit from the Agency in October showed no signs of improvement. A dye test carried out by an Agency officer showed that the surface water drain in the company’s yard discharged directly into the Towns Croft Drain. At the same time the officer noted that the foul effluent drain appeared to be blocked and was over-flowing into the same surface water drain.

Kieran Martyn, prosecuting for the Agency, said: The company continued to manage the site poorly after the first incident on August 28 and even after being interviewed under caution for this incident.”

After the hearing, Agency officer Christian Martin said: “This should send out a clear message to companies that the Environment Agency will take action against those who disregard environmental law.”

Bakkavör has since carried out work on the yard to separate the effluent from the rainwater, said Agency officer Emma Benfield.