Worcestershire Firm Fined £1M for Fish Kill Incident

A company has made a financial contribution of over £1 million to come into compliance and to deal with the effects of a pollution incident in 2018.

Environment Agency completes case on pollution incident near Redditch
Mettis Aerospace makes contribution to environmental improvements
Wildlife trusts among organisations to benefit from payment

An investigation by the Environment Agency has ended in Mettis Aerospace Limited of Redditch, making the payment under an Enforcement Undertaking (EU).

An EU is a voluntary offer made by companies and individuals to make amends for their offending.

Mettis Aerospace Limited accepted that discharges from their metals installation, a site permitted by the Environment Agency, had caused a fish-kill incident.

The discharges, from the site’s surface water drainage system, arose from the uncontrolled overfilling of a process tank on the site and inadequate containment measures.

This meant a solution of caustic and sodium aluminate was able to leak into an unprotected surface water drain and into an adjacent watercourse. Approximately 1,000 fish were killed.

As an alternative to prosecution for the offence, Mettis offered an EU including spending some £504,240 on site infrastructure improvements.

Details of the EU include:

Donations to environmental enhancement projects in Redditch and the Black Country totalling £379,500.
Initial pollution clean-up costs of £111,268
Payment of the Environment Agency’s initial investigation costs of £9,324
Site infrastructure improvements, training and management systems development and certification costs of £504,240
Loss of amenity compensation payments to local charities £7,000
Payment of Environment Agency’s costs for assessing compliance with the EU £13,026

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said:

Protecting the environment and taking action against those that damage or threaten this is our utmost priority.

While we will always prosecute in the most serious cases, enforcement undertakings are an effective enforcement tool to allow companies to put things right and contribute to environmental improvements.

They enable businesses to become more compliant and prevent repeat offending by improving their procedures, helping ensure future compliance with environmental requirements.

Background

Four organisations received donations to environmental enhancement projects in Redditch and the Black Country totalling £379,500.

They were: Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust £139,500; Worcestershire Wildlife Trust £5,000; Forge Mill Needle Museum £55,000; Redditch Borough Council £180,000.

What is an Enforcement Undertaking?  

An enforcement undertaking is available to the Environment Agency (EA) as an alternative sanction to prosecution or monetary penalty for dealing with certain environmental offences.

It is a legally binding voluntary agreement proposed by a business (or an individual) when the EA has reasonable grounds to suspect that an environmental offence has occurred.  

Enforcement Undertakings for environmental offences were introduced under the Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010 and the Environmental Civil Sanctions (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2010.   

Accepting an Enforcement Undertaking is always at the discretion of the EA.

But if accepted enables firms and individuals who have damaged the environment or operated outside of legislative requirements to offer to complete actions which will address the cause and effect of their offending, including making a payment to an appropriate project.

EUs can be offered for offences including polluting rivers, breaching permit conditions designed to protect communities, or failing to register and comply with recycling/recovery obligations. The Environment Agency then carefully considers whether the actions offered by the offender are acceptable.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/fish-kill-incident-costs-worcestershire-firm-over-1-million

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