Farm business fined for killing fish by reducing water quality

A farming business has been fined for reducing the water quality of a local waterway by spilling slurry into it, resulting in the death of hundreds of fish.

Earlier this week, CK&D Muir Limited was charged £8,000 at Teesside Magistrates' Court after it admitted to polluting Easington Beck.

The company was prosecuted after officers from the Environment Agency visited Grinkle Park Farm, where it is based, in March 2009.

They discovered that slurry had escaped from a pig shed and had leaked into the waterway, killing 220 brown trout.

Environment officer Paul Armstrong said: "This was a serious incident and a lot of fish were killed, for which the company accepted responsibility."

CK&D Muir Limited was also made to pay prosecution costs of £5,926.82.

Last week, John and Florence Ley, who own West Brendon Farm in Holsworthy, were fined £1,500 for illegally depositing waste in a quarry near a salmon spawning river.

Posted by Joseph Hutton