On Monday, July 4, 2022, at Leicester Magistrates’ Court, Roger Hobill of Grange Farm, Welby, close to Melton Mowbray, entered a plea of guilty to causing a release of silage effluent without a permit. He also acknowledged that he did not build a silo large enough to store the silage.
Hobill received a total punishment of £5,608 and was also required to pay £190 in victim surcharge in addition to £9,787.50 in expenses.
The court was informed that when Asfordby Fishing Lakes reported finding dead fish, Environment Agency officers were initially made aware of the incident.
Officers conducted a water quality investigation and discovered excessive ammonia levels. A total of 80 dead fish, including roach, common bream, and gudgeon, were also found.
Additionally, there were distressed fish who were occasionally gasping for breath.
Officers then went to Howell Lake in the neighborhood where they discovered a reduction in oxygen levels.
In addition, they went to Welby Brook, which was located about 1.5 kilometers upstream.
Due to this, the police went to Welby Farm, where Hobill claimed to be the farm’s owner.
He said that his silage clamp’s inside wall had recently collapsed, possibly causing silage liquor to flow onto the farmyard and into the surface drainage system.
When the officers were given a tour of the silage clamp, they noticed a fractured interior wall.
A fissure had allowed the silage to spill out onto the yard.
There was also slurry runoff from the open cattle pen, and slurry, cattle feed, and silage liquor were all flowing downhill into the surface water drain.
A tiny dam had been built, but it did nothing to stem the flow.
According to water quality tests, the brook upstream was clean and unpolluted while downstream it was dark and smelled like a septic tank.
Officers went back to the property the next day and discovered that heavy rain had caused further runoff to enter the surface water drains that was tainted with silage liquor and manure.
The defendant informed the authorities that although waste runoff water was produced by wet silage, it was removed by a drain.
Hobill said that he had bunded the drain and was gathering and pumping away the sewage about a month before to the pollution incident.
Hobill assumed the runoff had stopped and the bund was still in place after about six weeks, but he never checked.
It became out that the bund had been taken down, maybe by a worker or by cattle that trampled over it.
An Environment Agency representative stated:
This pollution incident was absolutely avoidable, and it demonstrates that our officers will go after farmers who break the rules.
Due to this incident, a nearby brook has become unacceptably polluted, harming fish and other aquatic animals severely.
Call our 24-hour incident hotline at 0800 80 70 60 if you have any concerns about pollution or an environmental incident.