UK AD company fined £20,000 for poor management, polluting waterways

A UK biogas company has been ordered to pay £20,000 (€23,859) for poor management of a facility and polluting waterways.

The UK Environment Agency said Trinity Hall Biogas poorly managed its anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Hockliffe, Bedfordshire, which led to watercourses being polluted, the Energy Live News reports.

Luton Magistrates’ Court heard water quality was chronically affected in the stream as a result of overflows from the plant.

The Environment Agency added bags of wrapped biofuel, owned by the company, were stored on a field in rows, “the ends of which were within 10m of the ditch where the effluent had been found” in April 2014.

It stated: “Four months later Agency officers went back to the farm to check the water quality of the brook and nearby watercourses and found levels of ammonia at 10mg/l, ten times higher than normally found in similar watercourses.”