A firm has been prosecuted for allowing cattle slurry to overflow from a lagoon, polluting a nearby river for four kilometres.
Manor Farm Dairy Ltd, of Manor Farm, Hilfield, Dorchester, appeared before Taunton Magistrates’ Court and pleaded guilty to an offence of causing a discharge of poisonous, noxious or polluting matter into a local river. It was fined £6000 and ordered to pay costs totalling £10,158.50 The fine was set at £9000 but reduced for an early guilty plea.
The court heard that in March 2024, the Environment Agency received a report of pollution from a member of the public near the village of Leigh, Sherborne. On arrival at Bailey Ridge Lane, the EA officer saw olive-green discolouration in the watercourse that indicated contamination from slurry. Significant amounts of foam were also present on the surface of the stream.
The officer followed the watercourse upstream, where it was traced to Manor Farm Dairy in Hilfield. Immediately downstream of Manor Farm’s slurry lagoons, the watercourse appeared to be running clear. However, the court heard, there was evidence of a ‘tideline’ of slurry having run about 4ft up both banks where slurry had entered the watercourse, at some force, prior to the officer’s arrival. The exact volume that escaped remains unknown but there was evidence of slurry overflowing from the recipient watercourse prior to entering the culvert on to the adjacent road.
An invertebrate ecology investigation was completed shortly after the incident, the court was told. This concluded that there was a pollution by organic material of the watercourse. This pollution caused a significant deterioration in water quality with the report concluding the slurry spill had a severe impact for 2km with further impact noticeable 4.5km from the source.
Guidance for farmers on appropriate storage is available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/storing-silage-slurry-and-agricultural-fuel-oil
