Clarehill Plastics Limited

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Failure To Bund Costs Plant Hire Polluter £25,000!

9th May 2009

A national plant hire company has been fined £12,000 for an oil leakwhich polluted the River Calder. At Pontefract Magistrates' Court, Hewden Stuart plc pleaded guilty to polluting the Calder and one of its tributaries, Willowbridge Beck, with diesel oil last October.

The company also admitted breaching oil storage regulations.

At the time, Hewden Stuart, owned and operated a depot atWillowbridge Lane at Whitwood, near Castleford, where it stored andmaintained plant and vehicles for hire. Paul Harley, prosecuting forthe Environment Agency,said the company kept a diesel oil tank at the depot. The tank had beenin use for many years and the Environment Agency had no record of anyprevious incidents.

Mr Harley told the court the tank was not bunded. A Bunded Tankconsists of a 'tank within a tank'. The inner tank acts the primarystorage vessel, whilst the outer tank acts a failsafe in the event of aspill. Bunded tanks are mandatory at almost all commercial, industrialand institutional premises, together with most new domestic heating oilstorage tank installations too.

After dark on 7 October 2008, a security guard discovered asignificant oil leak in the yard, traced immediately to the diesel oiltank. The court heard thieves, in trying to steal fuel, haddisconnected a hose which emptied the tank's entire the contents intothe yard. Between 3000 and 4000 litres of diesel oil then flowed intosurface water drains and down the road, ending up in Willowbridge Beck.

About 1.5 kilometres of the beck was affected by oil, as was theRiver Calder where it joined the beck. Although the area is mainlyindustrial, the beck flows through a green corridor which is a habitatfor wildlife.

Mr Harley said Hewden Stuart reacted quickly to contain the residueof the spillage and organised and paid for specialist contractors tocarry out an extensive clean-up operation, which was monitored by theEnvironment Agency.

The company was found to have no formal written procedures about thesecurity of the tank and described the failure to install a bunded tankas a "regrettable oversight". It admitted other non-compliant dieseltanks had been discovered and rectified at other sites.

Mr Harley said the incident was reasonably forseeable, caused by thelack of a bunded tank, and a large area of watercourse was affected.

In mitigation, the company made full and frank admissions andexpressed its remorse and regret at the first opportunity. It advisedthe Environment Agency of the incident as soon as practicable andco-operated with the subsequent investigation.

Hewden Stuart, which has since vacated the Whitwood site, was givencredit for its early guilty plea and the court acknowledged it hadresponded appropriately to the incident and organised the clean-up atits own expense.

The company, of Collins House, Rutland Square, Edinburgh, was fined£10,000 for the pollution offence and a further £2,000 for the storageoffence. It was ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £1,584.30 anda victim surcharge of £15.

Speaking after the hearing, environment officer David Preston said,"This case demonstrates the importance of having sufficient protectionto oil storage tanks, which is a legal requirement.

"Not only was the company fined £12,000 but in addition it also costthem over £12,000 to clean up the environment following the spill. Thisis many times what it would have cost to provide a bund in the firstplace."

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