Revealed: Scotland's 267 dirty polluters

from Sunday Herald, 22 September 2013

A record number of industrial sites across Scotland have been officially condemned for their “poor” or “very poor” performances in failing to control pollution.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has named and shamed 267 waste dumps, recycling plants, fish farms, sewage works and a host of other facilities for breaching pollution rules. Contamination has leaked, spilled and belched into the environment at unauthorised levels, sometimes threatening public health and wildlife.

Amongst the polluters outed by Sepa are the public water company, Scottish Water, Glasgow City Council, the famous Scottish food producer, Baxters, and the big waste firms Shanks and Sita. Five well-known whisky distilleries have also been criticised, along with two crematoria in Glasgow. 

Many of the polluting plants are repeat offenders, and have been labelled as poor performers for years. One of the worst offenders, the Dargavel waste incinerator in Dumfries, had its operating licence revoked by Sepa earlier this month after it failed to clean up a stinking 800-tonne mess left by a major fire.

The new “compliance assessments” from Sepa have prompted environmentalists to demand tougher action against polluters, including prosecutions. Industry bodies, however, stress that they are working hard to overcome any problems. 

Sepa rated 47 industrial sites as “very poor” and 220 as “poor” for 2012. This exceeds the 46 very poor and 170 poor sites in 2011 because Sepa increased the number of operations it assessed.

By far the biggest problems were found in the waste industry, with over 100 processing, recycling and landfill sites named as polluters. They included Glasgow City Council’s Cathkin landfill site in East Kilbride, under fire from Sepa for “repeated breaches” with gas leaks and smells.

A council spokesman accepted that the site had experienced “some issues with gas management”. But he added: “Significant remedial works took place through the year to improve that situation.”

Sepa criticised a Shanks waste disposal site at Leswalt in Stranraer for “numerous breaches” of pollution rules, and the Binn landfill in Perth run by Sita for “offensive odour” and “high leachate levels”. The waste industry, however, argued that it was “extremely rare” for companies to fall into Sepa’s poor category.

“Our members are not complacent,” said Matthew Farrow, speaking for the Scottish Environmental Services Association. “They aim to exceed the minimum requirements of the law and work closely with Sepa to ensure environmental performance is constantly improved.”

The second worst offender was the fish farming industry, with 50 sites across the west highlands and islands criticised by Sepa, mostly because of seabed pollution from salmon cages. Anti fish farm campaigners pointed out the four fish farms labelled “very poor” were either operated by Dawnfresh on Loch Etive, just north of Oban, or in Sutherland by Loch Duart, which brands itself as “the sustainable salmon company”.

Guy Linley-Adams, solicitor to the Salmon & Trout Association (Scotland), is helping local people oppose a new fish farm being proposed by Dawnfresh on Loch Etive. “It is time for Sepa to act, to show that their regulation of fish farmers has real consequences,” he said. “Let’s see some prosecutions.”

The Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation, which represents fish farmers, pointed out that 85% of fish farms were rated as excellent or good by Sepa. The problems were “by and large administrative”, insisted the organisation’s chief executive, Scott Landsburgh. “The industry recognises the importance of high levels of compliance and works to ensure these are maintained.”

As many as 46 sewage works were censured as poor, half of them operated privately by hotels, stately homes and other enterprises. The remaining 23 were run by Scottish Water, and suffered a series of spills and other problems.

Scottish Water’s Deerdykes Composting and Organics Recycling Factory in Cumbernauld was categorised as very poor for the second year running. This was due to “multiple breaches relating to offensive odours outside the site boundary as well as elevated emissions of bio-aerosols”, according to Sepa. 

Scottish Water maintained that the performance of over 1,800 water treatment works was improving, and that it had halved the number rated as poor. “We are committed to delivering further improvements and in the current 2010-15 investment period are investing more than £1 billion,” said a company spokesman.

Baxters, the famed family soup-maker based at Fochabers in Moray, was assessed by Sepa as poor for the second year running because of breaches to pollution discharge limits. The company has upgraded its effluent treatment plant, and is confident that its rating will be better this year.

The five whisky distilleries named included Glenfarclas at Ballindalloch on Speyside, which has now been rated as poor three years running. It has been exceeding its discharge quality standards, and has invested in a new treatment plant. 

Whyte & MacKay in Invergordon, assessed as poor for the last two years, suffered “two gross breaches” of its environmental limits in 2012. The other distilleries classed as poor in 2012 were Macallan at Craigellachie in Moray, Balblair at Edderton in Ross-shire and Ardmore at Huntly in Aberdeenshire, which works with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to help golden eagles. 

The Scotch Whisky Association, which represents distillers, insisted the industry was committed to protecting the environment. “It works closely with Sepa and other relevant organisations to ensure it goes above and beyond compliance requirements,” said the association’s spokeswoman.

Crematoria can be polluters because of the mercury and other toxins released by burning human remains. The two Glasgow crematoria assessed as poor were Daldowie on Hamilton Road and Linn on Lainshaw Drive, which failed to provide monitoring reports.

Moray Crematorium in Broadly, Aberdeenshire, was graded as very poor in 2012, following a poor rating in 2011 because of the “poor condition of the plant in use”. Edinburgh’s crematorium at Mortonhall was said by Sepa to be “at risk” of being downgraded to poor because it failed to install equipment to cut mercury emissions in time.

Other facilities rated as poor include the Laigh Glenmuir opencast coal mine near Cumnock, a paper mill near Stirling, a print supplier in Dundee, dairy businesses in Lockerbie, Wigtown and Orkney, an “eco-centre” in Bishopbriggs and “environmental solutions” plants in Falkirk and Grangemouth.

Sepa emphasised that the proportion of the 3,839 industrial activities it assessed as excellent, good or “broadly compliant” in 2012 was a slight improvement on 2011. “Compliance with the licences we issue is of paramount importance to ensure that Scotland’s environment and human health are safeguarded against the potential impacts of emissions and pollution,” said Sepa’s executive director, Calum MacDonald.

Environmentalists, however, pointed out that the record of large industrial plants and waste sites was getting worse. The Green MSP, Alison Johnstone, criticised ministers for cutting £2 million from Sepa’s funding, and said: “Communities should not have to put up with pollution, and it's time we got tough with big operators who repeatedly fail.”

Mary Church, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, described as “very disappointing” the failure of big-name bodies to fulfil their environmental responsibilities. "Companies should not expect to get away with poor performance,” she said.

“It is particularly obvious that there are plenty of cowboy operators in the waste industry and Sepa needs to crack down hard on the ones who just aren't listening.”

All of Sepa compliance assessments for 2012 can be viewed here, with results for 2011 here, 2010 here and 2009 here.

Comments

[talking to]

Very descriptive post, I loved that a lot. Will there be a part 2?

[Alexander Lough]

I have sent pictures of this to the Scottish Parliament,Claudia Beamish MSP for south scotland. i waited a few weeks for a reply from her,i did and she had consulted SEPA,THEY CONVINCED HER THAT EVERYTHING WAS ALRIGHT AT BELHAVEN,they assured her that they are monitering the river all the time.That is a lie,they always appear when the river is clear,which isn't very often,they are covering the whole thing up.

[Alexander Lough]

Raw sewage on pitches.
This was in the Berwickshire News on Thursday 5th,September 5th 2013
Dunbar rugby club have complained about flooding and raw sewage at the Hallhill healthy living centre Dunbar
Transportation and Scottish Water are aware of the issues which they say are related to insufficient drainage and sewage capacity with which Belton Ford sewage treatment plant cant cope,they are discharging the sewage into the river that runs to sea at Belhaven,the river is known as the BIEL BURN.i HAVE THIS ON CAMERA TIMED AND DATED.

[Suzanne Kelly]

I find this list has a number of serious omissions; SEPA seems to play a bit loose with the rules. For one thing, if it has rated fish farms as 'excellent' then it's clearly ignoring many of the major pollution/environmental issues that are documented. What about Blackdog, Aberdenshire - widely used as a dumping ground by the air force among others. Radioactivity is an issue which doesn't get much look in, either. SEPA's headquarters are in Torry, Aberdeen - a five minute walk from one of the most polluted burns in the country, East Tullos Burn. I've been among those who've campaigned for a clean up / prosecutions against those who pollute it, SEPA usually don't answer my queries, submitted by their online contact form or by their telephone service - but when they have, they've stated 'it's too difficult to figure out what companies are polluting' this tiny burn. By contrast the USA's Environmental Pollution Agency manages to figure out who pollutes vast rivers, and fines people heavily for doing so. Then there was the little matter of Stewart Milne homes and a pollution incident in the highlands - I'll see if that made their list or if any fine was meted out. If they started enforcing their remit, fining polluters, and stopped being political about what they do and more to the point don't do, we'd all be better off.