The next step

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Prosecuted for causing a fly infestation

On the farm

In June 2009 officers from the EA were called to Worden Farm in Devon. The farm, which is run by W J Watkins & Son (W), consists of five buildings housing nearly 400,000 chickens. On arrival at the farm, the problem was pretty obvious. As soon as the inspectors got out of their vehicles they were met with a plague of flies.

What caused this?

Chicken feed! When asked by the inspectors, the farm operator disclosed that they had changed the feed given to the chicken. The new feed contained sunflower seeds and a higher level of soya acid oil. This caused the chicken faeces to have a much higher moisture content which, in turn, created ideal breeding conditions for flies.

Tip. To prevent flies breeding on any site, it’s vital that all waste, especially food products, is kept in covered containers or sealed bags.

Spread over the fields

The fly explosion really kicked in when the chicken faeces was spread over the local fields as manure. Obviously, the local residents were less than impressed by the huge numbers of flies and complained to the authorities.

Investigation

The EA followed up the complaints and paid a visit to the site. The inspectors spotted the problem almost immediately and instructed the farm to cover the fields with plastic sheeting. This dried out the faeces and killed off the flies. In addition to telling the farm how to deal with the problem, the inspectors decided that enforcement action was necessary. This was because the farm had breached its environmental permit on two counts. The first resulted from changing the feed. Farmers must ensure that the feed doesn’t create such conditions. Secondly, once they were aware that they had a problem, they should have contacted the EA to inform them. In court, W was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £2,100 costs.

Avoid problems

Tip 1. If you have an environmental permit which controls discharges to the ground, water etc., you need to keep checking that you’re complying with it (see The next step).

Tip 2. Be very careful when making changes to a process. As this case proves, even doing something which seems pretty innocuous can have a serious impact. This is even more important if you have tight restrictions on a permit, i.e. you are only allowed to put certain substances into the ground, water etc. A new product will almost certainly take you outside the terms of the permit.

Tip 3. If you need to make changes to a process covered by a permit, you should consult the EA.

If you don’t?

As this case proves, if you don’t comply with your permit, the EA will force you to stop what you’re doing, make you put right any damage that’s been caused and then prosecute you, just for good measure.

For further information on environmental permits, visit http://environment.indicator.co.uk (EN 05.10.04).