Pledge to target polluters

Environment Agency ma nagers have vowed to continue their clampdown on businesses polluting watercourses in their bid to help protect wildlife.

The agency has reinforced its pledge to prosecute those breaking the law after Elwyn Griffiths, who runs one of the county's largest egg companies, was ordered to pay more than £6,000 for polluting a tributary of Soulton Brook, near Wem.

Griffiths, trading as JA & O Griffiths and Sons, of The Oaklands, Edstaston, admitted a charge relating to pollution of the tributary when he appeared at Market Drayton magistrates on Monday.

The charge was brought by the Environment Agency under the Water Resources Act 1991 and magistrates fined Griffiths £3,000 and ordered him to pay £3,221.94 costs.

After the the case Richard Dearing, the agency officer involved in the investigation, said: "Organic matter such as chicken manure can seriously affect water quality by depleting oxygen levels and causing high levels of ammonia, which is toxic to aquatic life."

At court, magistrates heard that a water sample taken downstream from the farm showed ammonia was present in levels above the average expected for a stream of its kind.

In interview, Griffiths, claimed a lagoon had overflowed. Mr Mark Whitehouse, for Griffiths, said his client had since invested in equipment at the Oaklands to prevent another occurrence of the offence.