Brewery served £100k fine for polluting UK river
23 Mar 2016
The Molson Coors Brewery (MCB) in the UK has been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £31,586 for polluting the River Wey in Hampshire.
The case against MCB brought by the Environment Agency was heard in Basingstoke Magistrates Court on 17 March, and MCB pleaded guilty to two offences.
The first was causing a water discharge activity and the second was breaching the condition of its environmental permit with respect to monitoring the Lasham Drain for fungus.
According to the EA, these resulted in the discharge of process trade effluent from its Alton Brewery into the River Wey via the Lasham Drain.
The court heard that this occurred following building alterations made by contractors who failed to seal a chamber designed to divert the trade effluent away from the Lasham Drain.
The Environment Agency said it had first received reports of the presence of fungus in the stream flowing outside Waterside Court in Alton, before moving along the River Wey towards Holybourne.
We take these types of incidents very seriously and will do everything within our powers to safeguard the environment and people affected
Paul Greaves, a senior Environment Agency officer
It traced the pollution to the MCB premises where a discharge of trade effluent was seen to be entering the Lasham Drain culvert within the brewery through the cracks and defects in the chamber.
The presence of large quantities of sewage fungus indicated that very high nutrient organic matter was entering the Lasham Drain, the Environment Agency said.
There were clear indications that there was a serious problem in the Lasham Drain, but it said MCB had failed to act upon this information.
“We take these types of incidents very seriously and will do everything within our powers to safeguard the environment and people affected, and that includes bringing those who harm the environment to account for their actions,” said Paul Greaves, a senior Environment Agency officer.
