Enforcement watchdog the Environment Agency has been fined for polluting the River Exe in Somerset. It is the first time in the ten year history of the organisation, which among other things protects rivers across the UK, has been prosecuted for water pollution. In September 2005, a sub-contractor building a flow monitoring station on the river inadvertently leaked toxic building waste into the main tributary. The pollution was the most serious "level one" type and killed 300 fish. It also occurred when the river was at its most vulnerable, with trout in abundance.
Because the Agency cannot prosecute itself, a local landowner was given Government permission to bring a private prosecution. The Agency pleaded guilty and was fined a total of £8,966 at Exeter Crown Court, the sub-contractor, May Gurney, of Norwich, was fined a total of £28,966. Richard Banwell for the Agency, said both parties to the work believed that clean water would be discharged and "neither contemplated what occurred." He went on to say that he felt the fish in the river had recovered, and admitted that there were lessons to be learned as there was inadequate supervision of the project. Three of the management team of May Gurney were disciplined and the company lost 3 million in contracts, as a result of the case.
