Polluting dairy is hit by £2,000 fine

Bowland Dairy Products Limited, which has a base at Fulshaw Head Farm in Barrowford, was also ordered to pay £1,104 to the Environment Agency which brought the prosecution.

Jane Morgan, prosecuting for the Agency, told the court that on February 15 the Environment Agency had received reports from members of the public that a stream in Barrowford was running white.

She said the agency's protection officer Terry Bucknall inspected a tributary of Pendle Water where it joins with the river in Barrowford and saw that the water was discoloured opaque and white for about 20 metres.

Pendle Water was also discoloured for about 50 metres along its right bank.

The officer then inspected the water at Wilkinson Street, Wheatley Springs housing development and Wheatley Lane Road and at each location the tributary was running opaque and white and samples taken from the water smelled of milk.

Mr Bucknall noticed a road gully in Wheatly Lane Road contained white liquid and there were signs this liquid had flowed down the access road.

A discharge had occurred from a manhole which was part of the private drainage system for Bowland Dairy Products.

There also appeared to have been a recent overflow at a second manhole which flowed into Wheatley Lane Road.

He said the area surrounding both manholes was littered with bottle tops, milk containers and drinking straws.

Two men associated with Fulshaw Head Farm told him that the drain, which belonged to Bowland Dairy ProductsLimited, had been blocked that morning.

On February 26 John Graham Coates, a director of Bowland Dairy, confirmed to Mr Bucknall that the drain which carries trade effluent from the dairy to the public sewer had blocked and overflowed in to the tributary.

Mrs Morgan told the court that this was a significant pollution incident and said the company had been aware of the problem with the drain and had not taken sufficient steps to deal with it.

No-one at the company was available for comment.