Swansea Firm Fined for Waste Offences

We all realise the importance of controlling leachate to prevent pollution. This UK Environment Agency web site News item shows that they will certianly prosecute if companies do not heed this requirement suitably.

B.J. Landholdings Ltd. of Plasmarl, Swansea have been fined a total of £2,000 by Swansea Magistrates (13.12.06) after pleading guilty to charges brought under Section 33 of The Environmental Protection Act 1990. The company was also ordered to pay full costs of £610 to Environment Agency Wales, who brought the prosecution.

The company holds a waste management licence for a closed landfill site at Penplas, Llangyfelach, Swansea. The site operated in the 1980’s, accepting building waste. It has now been restored to agriculture.

On two separate occasions this year, Environment Agency officers found contaminated water, known as leachate, leaking from the site into an nearby drainage ditch. The leaks appeared to be have been caused as a result of a build up of leachate within the site. It is the company’s responsibility to carry out regular maintenance and monitoring at the site, to ensure that it does not pollute the environment. In this case, the company should have been checking the leachate levels and removing it as required.

Following each incident, temporary repairs were carried out to the structure of the landfill, and excess leachate was removed from the site.

Magistrates were told that in an effort to provide a permanent solution to the problems, B.J. Landholdings Ltd are planning to install a leachate treatment system at the site; it is hoped that construction will start early in 2007. It is estimated that the proposed system will cost the company in excess of £60,000.

Speaking after the court hearing, Daron Herbert, Agency Environment Management Team Leader for the Swansea area, said:

Whilst the environmental impact of these particular incidents was relatively
minor, there remains the potential for a much more serious pollution incident if
standards of maintenance at the site are not improved. We are continuing to work
with the company to ensure the problem does not reoccur.

Leachate Blogger comment: This successful prosecution shows that the Environment Agency will not hesitate to take enforcement action against companies or individuals who fail to fulfil their responsibilities and so cause pollution to the environment.

However, it is quite common for closed landfills where monitoring has not been thought necessary, that there may be a gradually rising leachate level as the waste reaches absorbtive capacity over a long period. It can be easy to be caught out by this effect.