A prosecution by the Environment Agency has resulted in the conviction of 2 companies for causing trade effluent to pollute 3 kilometres of a Worcestershire brook. The companies have been ordered to pay fines and costs in excess of £90,000.

At Worcester Crown Court on 24 October 2024, Elisabeth The Chef (ETC) and Civil Environmental Project Services Ltd (CEPS) were sentenced for causing the discharge into the Laugherne Brook in September 2017.

ETC, a food manufacturer operating in Lower Broadheath, was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £52,000. CEPS, an engineering company in Bidford-upon-Avon was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £20,000.

Discharge result of series of human and corporate failings

The Court was told that the discharge caused the deaths of a significant number of fish and that it followed a series of human and corporate failings.

The manufacturing process at ETC produces around 40,000 gallons per day of trade effluent and human sewage.

CEPS provided quarterly maintenance, and a telemetry monitoring service, for a pumping station at ETC’s premises. It was designed to pump trade effluent and sewage from the works to a foul sewer.

On 1 September 2017, an employee of CEPS attended the ETC site’s pumping station to conduct routine maintenance. Following completion of the maintenance work, the employee failed to switch the pumps within the pumping station back on.

As a result, trade effluent built up in the pump well rather than being sent to the foul sewer. This caused an overflow of trade effluent from the pumping station into a containment lagoon.

The containment lagoon filled up and then discharged the pollutant through a broken sluice gate and into a ditch running alongside the factory.

The pollution discharge flowed from the ditch into the Laugherne Brook, flowing towards Worcester and the River Teme in the south of the city.

The situation was compounded by the same CEPS employee reporting to ETC on 4 September 2017, whilst the pollution was going on, stating that it was ‘working ok’.

The same employee had also attended the ETC site in April 2017 and erroneously fitted an alarm too high within the pumpwell. This meant that the alarm did not function properly and consequently ETC was not notified that the pumping station was not working.

On 5 September 2017, members of the public contacted the Environment Agency to report that the Laugherne Brook was cloudy and dead fish were on the surface.

The Environment Agency managed the response to the incident and identified the source of the pollution and ETC then took action to stop the pollution.

Officers carried out water quality testing and found that there had been a severe short-term impact covering some 3 kilometres of the Laugherne Brook.

Some 86 dead fish were counted in the accessible sections of the Brook, including brown trout, bullhead, dace, and gudgeon.

Hundreds of fish were estimated to have been killed as a result of the incident.

Failure to put in checks and procedures

ETC, a company with previous convictions for environmental offending, initially blamed CEPS for the incident.

However, ETC subsequently accepted that it had failed to put in checks and procedures to ensure its on-site pumping station was working correctly.

The company also accepted that it had failed to conduct day-to-day physical checks of its pumping station and containment lagoon.

CEPS was vicariously liable for the actions of its employee. It had failed to put in place appropriate checks and monitoring to instruct its employee to ensure that work was done competently.

In sentencing, the Court remarked that the state of rivers were ‘at the front of the public consciousness’ and that this was a ‘serious breach of law’.

In mitigation, the Court remarked that both companies had undertaken investigations and taken all remedial action to prevent a recurrence.

The Court noted that ETC had been under different ownership when the pollution event occurred and the new owners were taking the company’s environmental responsibilities seriously.

The Court also noted that there have been no further pollution events at the site since 2017.

CEPS admitted responsibility for the incident at an early stage.

The Court noted that the company’s engagement and co-operation with the Environment Agency’s investigation was ‘impressive.’ It had no previous convictions of any kind.

Kelly Horsley, an Environment Officer for the West Midlands Environment Agency, said:

“We welcome this sentence as this was a serious pollution which caused considerable disruption besides fish deaths.

“The Environment Agency will pursue any company that fails to uphold the law or protect nature and will continue to press for the strongest possible penalties.”