The largest independent whisky bottling plant in Scotland has been fined £12,000 after 5,000 litres of whisky was spilled into the River Ayr.
The spill, which was equivalent to a whopping 7,143 bottles, happened at Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse’s site, at Catrine in East Ayrshire in September 2011, when a valve on a tanker lorry containing 27,500 litres was opened via a computer and the liquid was sent in error to a full tank, which overflowed into the river.
A member of staff spotted liquid spraying from one of the tanks and the pumping was immediately stopped.
The spillage was reported to the procurator fiscal by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and officials from the company appeared at Ayr Sheriff Court to face the charge of contravening the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations SSI 2011/209 and the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003.
SEPA’s reporting officer David Wallace said the firm, which pleaded guilty to the charge, had failed to take the steps necessary to prevent the spillage.
Mr Wallace said: "Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Limited’s site is more or less bounded on three sides by a loop of the River Ayr, so minimising the risk of pollution entering the water should be a top priority.
While sending the spirit to the wrong tank appears to have been caused by human error, there were no contingency arrangements to prevent this kind of accident causing pollution. Although a system could have been installed to automatically open the correct valves to pick the correct tank, it was not activated."
He added that gauges and alarms to warn when the tanks were almost full had not been connected to the control system.
A bund around the storage tanks, designed to contain any spill, had a drain valve leading directly to the river, which had been left open after draining rainwater.
Some of the whisky, totalling 1,600 litres, was contained in the bund but the rest, totalling 5,000 litres, overflowed into the river.
Mr Wallace added: "Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Limited has now taken steps to correct these failings, but companies should not wait until there is a pollution incident before they take steps to prevent such an incident happening."
A spokeswoman for the Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse refused to comment.
Procurator fiscal Sara Shaw said: "The risk of pollution of the river should have been one of the considerations at the forefront of the company’s policies.
