WBB Minerals fined for slurry leakage

WBB Minerals have been ordered to pay £3,325 in fines and costs for an incident in which clay slurry from Shaugh Quarry, near Plymouth, leaked into the river Plym, causing serious discolouration along a 12km stretch of the river. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

Plymouth magistrates heard how, on 4 January 2006, a pipeline transporting the slurry off site burst causing the material to leak into the river via a tributary. Having discovered the leak during a routine inspection, WBB Minerals immediately shut off the pipeline, diverted the tributary away from the source of the leak using a dam, and self-reported the incident to the Environment Agency.

Environment Agency tests showed that the suspended solids in the sampled river water ranged between 21mg/litre and 135mg/litre; the expected results for the river water on a normal dry day should be less than 3mg/litre.

WBB Minerals were fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,325 costs after pleading guilty to allowing polluting matter to enter controlled waters, contrary to Section 85(1) and Section 85(6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.