Stoneledge (South Bank) Ltd fined £6k for dumping waste on farmland
STRICT new measures have been put in place at a company that put the health of the public at risk by dumping large amounts of waste on farmland without a permit.
Crucial drinking water supplies could have been endangered after lorry loads of waste were illegally dumped, a court heard.
-
Stoneledge (South Bank) Ltd, of South Humberside Industrial estate, Grimsby, admitted depositing controlled waste without a permit.
Stoneledge (South Bank) Ltd, of South Humberside Industrial Estate, Grimsby, admitted depositing controlled waste without a permit between November 12, 2008 and July 16 last year.
Anne-Lise McDonald, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told North Lincolnshire magistrates that an investigating officer spotted three Stoneledge lorries drive by at Grange Farm, Faulding Way, South Killingholme. Soil, stones, bricks and gravel had been dumped.
Another lorry arrived and dumped more waste. The waste was being brought from a site in Stallingborough. A large amount of earth was piled up.
About 4,000 tons of waste had been dumped at the South Killingholme site between 2008 and last year.
More waste was dumped even after the company was told to stop. It was contaminated by plastics, carpets, wood, electrical parts and pipes. Much of the material was from Elsham airfield.
"Significant amounts of waste have been brought on to the site," said Mrs McDonald.
She stressed that there was no evidence of any actual environmental harm but the waste created an eyesore in the countryside.
Because Grange Farm was on a major aquifer – an underground layer of rock leading to potential drinking water supplies – there was the risk of harm to the public.
Stoneledge should have checked to make sure a permit was in place, or an exemption. It had been paid £70 a load to dispose of the waste.
Company director Richard Hornby told the court: "This is our first ever offence of this nature in 28 years. We have learned from this difficult and stressful experience."
He said "more vigorous checks" would be made and the company had employed a waste management consultant to guide it in the future.
Stoneledge prided itself on its reputation and was extremely disappointed to be in this situation.
Mr Hornby said the company understood from the landowner's agent that the appropriate permissions were in place and Stoneledge took that at face value.
The company stopped dumping the waste when told by the Environment Agency and co-operated fully with the investigation.
The magistrates fined the company £6,000 and ordered it to pay £5,221 costs.
It had no previous convictions, the court heard.
2 Comments
by Adie, South Killingholme
Saturday, July 17 2010, 9:18PM
“This matter would not have come to light if it had not been for a local resident who continually pursued this matter with the environmental agency.
This matter was reported to the South Killingholme parish Council but, fell on deaf ears, and nothing was done.
So I say to you all do not waste your time and efforts, report these law breakers to the authorities yourselves and keep pushing, Remember it is the future of your children's children and their children you are looking out for.
May-be the environmental agency should also take a closer look at the bung wall on Manby Road Immingham that ABP had put there.
Good look to you Immingham residents with your plight against the coal dust I am with you all the way , again we must keep pushing we will get there in the end.”
by Pensioner, Immingham
Friday, July 16 2010, 4:13PM
“This is a serious offence but it still made me smile!
The contamination materials listed are probably contained in (and used in the construction), of every house built in Lincolnshire.
This aquifer which I have mentioned on several occasions presumably also extends beneath the refinery's and the docks?
This offending company is punished and fined for their misdemeanours (quite rightly).
Large tonnages of spoil were recently dumped at the Immingham golf club and alongside Manby road.......this excavation spoil disposal went under the name of landscaping and an environmental contamination bund. Both episodes conveniently avoided land fill expenses. The golf course applied for planning permission after the material was dumped!
If this company above is fined for potentially contaminating land what are the environment agency doing to curtail the biggest ongoing pollution event by ABP on the docks estate? Surely the several square miles of dust film deposited over the surrounding countryside and over Killingholme and Immingham are a well documented and unpunished disaster compared to the company in this article?
What happens to the several square miles of hydrocarbon leachates that percolate into the hydrology of this area continuously. The ABP mineral keys and storage areas, let alone the fugitive dust footprint over the towns, must contaminate the local areas water courses? We are talking about complex hydrocarbons and carcinogenic derivatives spread into the atmosphere by ABP, not construction spoil as above!
How does the biggest polluter in Lincolnshire (ABP) get off scott free when they overtly pollute surrounding towns over decades and yet this little pollution event in Killinghholme attracts punishment?
ABP as this area's major polluter causes misery to thousands of people and surrounding land gets no action from the environment agency.........how strange. ABP dumps thousands of tons of fugitive dusts into the Humber during normal prevailing winds and nobody cares. ABP pollutes the docks, the surrounding towns and recently the well documented child.......still nobody cares, especially the benign environment agency's of both "Lincolnshires!"”