An East Cornwall farmer has been ordered to pay £600 in a fine and costs by South East Cornwall magistrates sitting at Liskeard, for turning the water of an important conservation site black with farm waste.
The case was recently brought by the Environ-ment Agency.
On April 23 this year the Agency was alerted to a pollution incident on the Kingsmill stream near Hatt. The stream enters the Tamar Estuary at Kingsmill Lake, a site of special scientific interest.
The Agency said the stream divides into two upstream of where the incident was reported. On inspection, an Agency officer found one length running clear while the other was black and smelling heavily of farm waste. Further investigation led the officer to Ellbridge Farm where he was informed there had been a problem with a slurry irrigator connected to a dirty water pit that afternoon.
The Agency added that the irrigation pump had since been switched off, but on further investigation it became clear the irrigation pipe had been disconnected from the spray irrigator, allowing slurry to discharge direct on to the land and then run off into the watercourse. Two other dirty water pits on the property were found to be completely drained.
Jonathon Frank of Ellbridge Farm, Hatt near Saltash pleaded guilty to discharging trade effluent to controlled waters contrary to section 85(3) of the Water Resources Act 1991. He was fined £400 and ordered to pay £200 costs.
Bruce Newport for the Environment Agency said: 'This pollution was totally avoidable through good management practices, it is essential that farmers carry out regular checks on equipment and on watercourses when spreading farm waste to land.'