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Havering Magistrates’ Court has fined Brett Lafarge Limited £12000 plus £4114 costs for an offence contrary to section 85 (1) of the Water Resources Act 1991. Brett Lafarge Limited pleaded guilty on 9 October 2008 to causing polluting matter to enter controlled waters, namely the Hog Hill Ditch and Seven Kings Water.
Brett Lafarge Limited operates a gravel quarry at Fairlop Quarry, Hainault Road, Little Heath, near Romford in Essex. Hog Hill Ditch is a tributary of Seven Kings Water, which joins the Seven Kings at Fairlop Quarry. As part of the quarrying process silt is produced which is piped to a silt lagoon. The pipe runs adjacent to Hog Hill Ditch.
On 13 November 2007, an Environment Agency officer on a routine visit to Fairlop Quarry saw that silt had entered Seven Kings Water and traced this upstream to Hog Hill Ditch. The silt had escaped from a worn coupling on the silt pipe which had not been checked by the company. It had found a route down a rabbit hole and had entered Hog Hill Ditch. It travelled the length of Hog Hill Ditch, and into Seven Kings Water a distance of 1.5km.
The silt covered the whole of the Hog Hill Ditch. It was over a foot deep at the point of entry and at the Hainault road bridge it was approximately eight inches thick. Although silt is inert, it is a pollutant, as it clogs gills of fish and smothers the bed, affecting invertebrates and leading to asphyxiation. An ecological survey showed that ecological life in Hog Hill Ditch had been detrimentally affected but that in Seven Kings Water it had not.
The company admitted in interview that the silt escape had been discovered on Saturday 10 November and the damaged pipe coupling replaced. However, they did not inform the Agency. They also claimed that the site supervisor had taken certain preventative measures to stop the silt causing further damage but the Environment Officer saw no evidence of this when she visited. The removal of silt and clean-up operation only began after the officer discovered the pollution and took approximately four weeks to conclude.
Environment Officer Elaine Campbell says: “Brett Lafarge is a repeat offender with regards to silt pollution of our watercourses. We hope that they will learn from their previous mistakes and in future put in place effective and timely prevention measures."
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