The owners of a dairy farm have been ordered to pay £14,252 in fines and costs for polluting a stream with effluent. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

The agency received a report of pollution in the Colam Stream near Muddiford, Barnstaple on 24 May 2016. The pollution was traced to nearby Collacott Farm where Richard Dallyn, director of Dallyn’s Dairy Ltd, admitted there had been spillages the previous day.

Effluent from a dirty water lagoon had been pumped into a field channel instead of being dispersed on the land by sprayer. Described as ‘thick with cattle dung,’ the dirty water was then allowed to flow downhill and into the stream.

Officers also saw a slurry umbilical pipe across the stream. There were signs a ‘significant discharge’ of effluent had occurred. Slurry was visible on the riverbank, rocks and surrounding bushes suggesting a coupling on the pipe had failed. There was also heavy algal growth and sewage fungus in the stream that indicated a source of long term pollution was present.

Further checks revealed pollution was also coming from one of a series of settlement ponds on the farm that had overflowed and was sending poor quality water into the Colam Stream. As a precaution, the Environment Agency alerted the owners of two fish farms downstream of Collacott Farm.

A clean river capable of supporting trout and salmon would be expected to have an ammonia reading of approximately 0.25mg/litre. The ammonia level downstream of the illegal discharge was 20.2mg/litre.

More than 600 metres of the stream was affected by a ‘chronic and continuing’ pollution. In places the watercourse was ‘running grey’ with large amount of silt and residue. Large colonies of ‘blood worms’, an indicator of poor water quality, also were present.

A court heard there had been a history of pollution incidents at Collacott Farm involving silage, slurry and dirty water run-off that had resulted in warning letters and a caution from the Environment Agency.

Sean McKay for the Environment Agency said: “The Environment Agency works closely with farmers to ensure that they understand their responsibilities towards the environment and that they comply with the relevant regulations.

“It will not hesitate to take action against farmers who take risks and fail to put appropriate pollution prevention measures in place.”

Dallyn’s Dairy Ltd was fined £6,666 and ordered to pay £7,416 costs by Barnstaple magistrates after pleading guilty to polluting the Colam Stream, an offence under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations. The company was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £170. The case was heard on January 30, 2018.

The document will present Forestry Commission England’s six headline indicators: number of high priority forest pests in the UK Plant Health Risk Register, percentage of known tree felling that is carried out with Forestry Commmission approval, percentage of woodland in active management, area of woodland, cost of managing the Public Forest Estate and number of private sector businesses operating on the Public Forest Estate.

The Environment Agency consults the public on certain applications for waste operations, mining waste operations, installations, water discharge and groundwater activities. The arrangements are explained in its Public Participation Statement

These notices explain:

• what the application is about
• how you can view the application documents
• when you need to comment by

The Environment Agency will decide:

• whether to grant or refuse the application
• what conditions to include in the permit (if granted)

The Environment Agency publish permits that they issue under the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).

This decision includes the permit and decision document for:

• Operator name: Gilbertson & Page Limited
• Installation name: Brownfields Pet Food Factory
• Permit number: EPR/YP3135YD/A001

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) will be running a £2.2 mil project in Malaysia and Indonesia to use satellite observations and measurements to monitor peatland areas, thereby reducing the occurrence of forest fires and haze in South East Asia. The project, named Peatland Assessment in SE Asia by Satellite (PASSES) will be delivered by CGI IT UK Ltd in partnership with the Global Environment Centre (GEC) of Malaysia.

The state-of-the-art project will map peat condition using observations from satellites through the EU Copernicus programme and emerging industrial hosted processing capabilities. By monitoring water levels and improving hydrology in the peatland areas, the risk of fire can be dramatically reduced.

Her Excellency Vicki Treadell CMG MVO, the British High Commissioner to Malaysia, welcomed the initiative and said:

This project is the latest example of the UK’s partnership with Malaysia in tackling global environmental challenges. This cutting-edge UK space technology will monitor risk areas, so it helps to reduce forest and peatland fires as well as haze that they cause. As such it will also reduce the significant health risks from haze as well as global CO2 emissions. So whether on the ground or now from space, Britain’s partnership with Malaysia is helping to improve the lives of Malaysians and the environment in which they live.

Faizal Parish, Director of Global Environment Centre (Malaysia) said:

The PASSES project will further develop and demonstrate new cost effective satellite technology suitable for detecting and monitoring vertical displacement over very large peatland areas. As such it will be highly strategic in enabling more efficient targeting and monitoring of results of management actions including water management and peatland restoration as well as supporting fire and haze prevention, both in Malaysia and Indonesia.
PASSES is one of 10 new projects under UKSA’s International Partnership Programme announced by the UK Science Minister Sam Gyimah on 8 Feb 2018. The projects underline the importance of bringing together the UK’s world-class research and expertise to deliver innovative solutions to real world problems across the globe.

The successful projects, worth £38 million in total, are led by a diverse range or organisations from the UK’s growing space sector, from large companies such as Inmarsat and CGI, to start-ups such as Guildford-based Earth-i. The UK Space Agency and industry are working together to grow the UK’s share of the global space market to 10% by 2030.

Science Minister Sam Gyimah said:

The UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme will help developing countries tackle big issues like disaster relief and disease control, while showcasing the services and technology on offer from our leading space businesses.

The International Partnership Programme is part of the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Global Challenges Research Fund. It is a £1.5 billion fund from the UK Government, which supports cutting-edge research and innovation on global issues affecting developing countries.