Sibelco UK has been ordered to pay £7,210 in fines and costs after soil escaped from a quarry site near Plymouth and polluted a small stream. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

On July 7, 2009 a number of people contacted the Agency to report the Smallhanger Brook was heavily discoloured. Rising at Crownhill Down, the brook passes through the small hamlet of Drakeland Corner just outside the Dartmoor National Park.

The pollution was traced to an area on Crownhill Down near Cornwood where the china clay company, Sibelco UK had stripped grass and topsoil from a large area of moorland prior to extending its quarrying operations.

Heavy rain caused surface water on this exposed area of land to be contaminated with suspended solids and run-off into the headwaters of the Smallhanger Brook via a temporary drainage channel. The brook flows through a wooded valley before finally joining the Tory Brook near Newnham.

Once Sibelco was made aware of the problem, the company took immediate action and constructed a bund around the site to contain flows. However, on July 14, 2009, the Agency received further reports of discolouration in the Smallhanger Brook. When an officer returned to inspect the site he saw the containment bund had been breached and the stream was once again contaminated with sediment.

"There were no pollution prevention measures in place to try to reduce the environmental impact of potentially harmful run-off from this site. Anyone undertaking major engineering works must provide adequate containment and settlement facilities to ensure their activities do not pollute nearby watercourses. Sediment entering watercourses blankets the riverbed and clogs the gills of fish and other aquatic life," said Jon Snowden for the Environment Agency.

Sibelco UK Ltd, of Congleton Road, Sandbach, Cheshire was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £3,210 costs by Plymouth magistrates on 6th July 2010 after pleading guilty to two offences of allowing polluting matter to enter the Smallhanger Brook, Drakeland Corner contrary to Section 85(1) of the Water resources Act 1991.

The company told the court the pollution had partly resulted from its efforts to protect certain rare species at the recently cleared site at Crownhill Down. It had been told by ecologists and conservationists to avoid disrupting flows of water from the site to protect mosses and other species that thrive in damp conditions.

Extra Link: China Clay in Devon - pdf file from the County Council here