A SLURRY spill into the River Ore has resulted in a £3750 fine for an egg farm based near Kirkcaldy.

Deans Foods Limited, which runs Sheep Pens Farm at Thornton, pled guilty at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to carrying on an activity liable to cause pollution of the water environment, after an incident resulted in chicken slurry discharging into the surface drain at the farm, which entered the River Ore via the railway drain at Redford Bridge.

SEPA officers were alerted to a problem following a telephone call to its 24 hour pollution hotline on July 19, in 2008, and on attending saw dead fish, though no pollution was visually evident.

In an effort to determine where the pollution originated, SEPA officers contacted a number of businesses in the area to check if there had been any spills. Despite asking a representative of Deans Foods whether there had been any spills at any of their premises, it was not until an officer visited the Sheep Pens site on 25 July, and saw muck in the yard and the drainage ditch, that the source was finally identified.

Alistair Morrison, SEPA’s investigating officer, said: “It appears the high level of ammonia in the slurry discharged resulted in the death of migrating sea trout and resident brown trout, as well as eels and coarse fish species in the watercourses downstream.”

SEPA’s director of Environmental Protection and Improvement, Colin Bayes, said: “We want to help people avoid pollution and advice on how to do that is easily available from our staff, offices and www.sepa.org.uk. The NetRegs website, www.netregs.gov.uk, also offers clear guidance on environmental rules and regulations. However, where pollution is significant or persistent, or is as a result of wilful or negligent actions, SEPA will use its enforcement powers to protect the environment for the benefit of all of Scotland’s citizens.”