News in brief: UK farm JE Hartley Limited, a frozen vegetable supplier, has donated £23,000 to an environmental charity after illegally spreading waste sludge on its land over several years without proper permits.
A UK farm has donated £23 thousand to an environmental charity, after illegally spreading waste sludge on its land. JE Hartley Limited, a farming business that produces frozen vegetables, was found to have repeatedly breached its muck-spreading permit.
The Environment Agency said JE Hartley, which supplies frozen vegetables to some of the UK’s top retail stores, repeatedly spread waste sludge on its land between March 2016 and February 2022 without permission.
The farm operates an anaerobic digestate plant on site which produces energy for the company and sludge from this plant, regarded as waste, is what they spread on land.
JE Hartley, under condition of its permit, was supposed to make an application each time it is to spread waste. The conditions also include where, when, what type and how much of the waste it can spread.
They are also expected to show evidence that such wastes have agricultural benefits before their applications can be granted.
However, records show that unauthorised spreading took place every year from 2013 to 2021 in varying quantities ranging between 2.6 tons to 10.5 tons.
The Agency added that the company only made four applications for spreading during the period, which were all declined for lack of sufficient information. Additionally, JE Hartley defaulted paying application fees ranging from £760 to £1,718 each time.
Area environment manager for North Yorkshire at the Environment Agency, Chris Barrow, said the food processor knew that they had failed to comply with their environmental permit and deemed it appropriate to accept an Enforcement Undertaking offer.
All the defaulted costs go into a project that will enhance, restore and protect Englandâs natural environment. The payment will go towards supporting the work of the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust.
JE Hartley Limited also agreed to revise its land spreading methods. It gave assurances of no further spreading without consent from the environmental agency and pledged to cover the Environmentâs Agencyâs costs.
The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Its responsibilities include the protecting and enhancing England (and until 2013 also Wales) environment.
