Stirling Water Seafield Ltd were today (3 August 2001) fined £5,000 at Linlithgow Sheriff Court in respect of a breach of section 30F(3) of the Control of Pollution Act 1974. The charge was that on three dates in June and July 2001 they had caused or knowingly permitted sewage effluent to be discharged from the East Calder Sewage Treatment Works into the River Almond in breach of their consent.

The company pled guilty to the charge on 18 July 2001 and sentencing was deferred until today. The prosecution was the result of a report submitted to the Procurator Fiscal by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

The consent contains limits on the levels of biological oxygen demand that may be contained in any sample of sewage effluent taken. The BOD levels found to be contained in the samples taken on the three dates not only exceeded the consent level but were also of a level between three to ten times the level which is generally classed as ‘grossly polluting’.

Mike Devlin, Senior Environment Protection Officer for SEPA’s West Lothian area team said:

“This should be a warning to all potential polluters that while SEPA will both work with them to prevent pollution occurring and to monitor any pollution incidents, we will not tolerate continued pollution by any organisation.

“SEPA will continue to monitor the discharges into the River Almond to both ensure that the local environment is protected and that the conditions of the company’s statutory discharge consent are complied with on a consistent basis.’’

ENDS

Notes for Editors

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) was established under the Environment Act 1995. Its main duty is to protect the environment by controlling pollution to land, air and water in Scotland.