Containment News is a mine of information on water pollution. One might have thought that water pollution was very 70’s & 80’s but this monthly newsletter reveals malpractice and poor management alive and well on a huge scale. To subscribe to this FREE monthly eNewsletter please click HERE all we require is your Email address, we will not share your details with any third party and you will only receive the eNewsletter that you request.

Just seven of the twenty + articles in the latest newsletter:

Anglers Welcome Record Fine For Pollution Of The River Thames

The Angling Trust & Fish Legal welcome the fact that Thames Water has been fined £20 million for pumping nearly 1.5 billion litres of untreated sewage in to the River Thames and its tributaries in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in 2013 and 2014. Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust & Fish Legal said: “Our organisations made representations to the Sentencing Council in recent years calling for higher fines for companies with deep pockets who cause serious pollution incidents and so we are pleased to see an appropriate penalty in this case  ….  www.anglersnet.co.uk

South West Water Fined £150K For Sewage Beach Spill

West Water have been fined £150,000 for spilling sewage onto a bank holiday beach and polluting a village stream. The water company allowed potentially dangerous sewage to flow down Dawlish beach in the height of the summer tourist season in one incident and caused a fish kill in the other.  Engineers blamed blockages in their system caused by people flushing wet wipes down the toilet for one of the spills and a discarded brick for blocking a sewer in the other  …  www.middevonadvertiser.co.uk    www.devonlive.com

South West Water Fined For Not Reporting CSO Fish Deaths

South West Water is to pay £89,000 in fines and costs after a sewer overflow which should only discharge during storms polluted a stream with sewage for up to two days. Exeter Crown Court heard that around 150 fish were killed as a result of the sewage discharge from Ham Lane Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) into a stream in Woodbury, near Exeter, leading to the prosecution by the Environment Agency …  www.wwtonline.co.uk

Company Director Jailed After Dumping 75K Tonnes Of Waste

The Director of a waste management company has been jailed for 15 months after illegally dumping 75,000 tonnes of waste – leaving the landowner with a £10 million bill. Barry Kilroe’s stored an estimated 75,000 tonnes of waste at a site close to the Manchester Ship Canal in Moore without an Environment Agency permit through his company Asset and Land Group Ltd.  One of the biggest investigations in the Environment Agency’s history has led to Kilroe being jailed for 15 months and banned from operating as a company director for six years …  www.runcornandwidnesworld.co.uk

Welsh River Polluted After Almost 450,000 Litres Of Slurry

here are fears that a river might have been severely polluted after a failed lagoon discharged almost 450,000 litres of slurry into a tributary. Officers from Natural Resources Wales (NRW) are responding to the incident near Abergavenny after the discharge was leaked into a tributary of the River Honddu.  The slurry has been described as a “dark vicious material” in the water …  www.walesonline.co.uk

Could Brexit Cost Cornwall’s Beaches Their Blue Flag Status?

Cornwall could lose the much-treasured and economically valuable Blue Flag status for its beaches because of Brexit, environmentalists have warned. Surfers Against Sewage, the national charity based in St Agnes, is worried that standards may slip when Britain leaves the European Union and everything that comes with it. It remains uncertain whether adhering to the strict Blue Flag scheme will be one of Britain’s priorities outside of the EU …  www.cornwalllive.com

HMRC Consults On Extending Landfill Tax To Illegal Sites

Consultation on extending the scope of landfill tax to illegal waste sites has been launched by HM Revenue & Customs.  It says the aim is to deter non-compliance by making waste crime less profitable, and reinforcing the principle of ‘the polluter pays’. The consultation, heralded in the recent Budget, applies only to England and Northern Ireland. Changes could be in place by April 2018. The consultation document is available HERE closing date for comments is 5th May 2017 …  www.mrw.co.uk