A large UK WASTE company has been accused of polluting water supplies in a North East town (and that this was, it is alleged, somehow by allowing leachate to enter the groundwater), is set to face trial. Residents were disappointed about the slow progress of the action, with the lawyers and Biffa going away to prepare their cases.
Unfortunately, if leachate has entered the groundwater, it will be there of a very long time. We have taken an excerpt form the orginal article and included it as a quotation below. For the full article please make a point of visiting the original web site via he linik at the bottom of the article:
Biffa Waste Services Ltd, which runs a waste management site at Houghton-le-Spring, is being prosecuted by the Environment Agency for six alleged water contamination offences which are said to have occurred between 2010 and 2011.Charges facing the company include allowing leachate – a foul-smelling liquid which runs from rubbish – into the water supply, knowingly breaking the conditions of their Environmental Permit and failing to inform the Environment Agency of the breaches.
The water supply serves thousands of homes in Sunderland and County Durham.
Protestors involved in the Residents Against Toxic Site (RATS) group, who have campaigned against the landfill site for 15 years, were at Sunderland Magistrates’ Court yesterday for the latest brief hearing in the case.
Colin Wakefield, an independent councillor for the Copt Hill ward and chairman of RATS, said the campaigners support the prosecution.
The group were hoping to see immediate progress but instead the case was adjourned until September, when the matter has been listed for trial.
However no pleas have yet been entered by Biffa Waste Services, and it is understood the case could still be resolved outside of court.
Biffa Waste Services is one of the biggest waste management companies in the UK and runs the Houghton-le-Spring landfill from a former quarry.
It deals with 500,000 tonnes of waste a year and the organisation is currently in the process of asking for planning permission to continue operating for another 17 years.
It lies less than a mile from Stonegate pumping station in Houghton-le-Spring which supplies water to people living in South Sunderland, Houghton-le-Spring and South Durham.
Niall Carlin, prosecuting on behalf of the Environment Agency, said at an earlier hearing: “The case has a great deal of public importance as it relates to allegations of contamination of water supplying the citizens of Sunderland.”
Biffa Waste Services are charged with breaching their Environmental Permit; failure to inform the Environment Agency of the breach; allowing pollution of ground water to occur; not taking measures to prevent leachate emissions causing pollution; exceeding acceptable levels of leachate; and exceeding danger levels for ground water.
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