WATER - 18.08.2011

Water pollution that could have been prevented

Down the drain

Recently, many businesses have been found guilty of the same offence: polluting the ground water. And, in each case, the fines and penalties imposed by the courts have been significant. For example, when oil leaked from a forklift repair site at Donington near Spalding, the owner of the business was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay full Environment Agency (EA) costs of £4,000. In addition, the company had to clean up the mess it made - which of course, wouldn’t have been a cheap exercise. However, the impact both to this company (and others like it) and the environment could have been significantly reduced if a drainage plan had been in place.

What the EA had to say on the matter

In court, the EA inspector who took the case stated “the impact may have been reduced if it had been realised that the oil had got into the surface water drainage from the site”. Because the leak wasn’t spotted quickly, the oil spread half a kilometre from the yard into a local drain.

Prevent it getting to your drains

In this case, the fact that oil had been spilt was obvious. According to the inspector, there were many signs of it on the forklift repair yard. However, it appears that the owner of the site hadn’t realised that the spilt oil had made it to the drain.

Tip. To comply with oil storage regulations, you must take steps to prevent oil from reaching your drains. This includes having bunded areas which collect any spilt oil.

Site knowledge

Although the bunds should stop oil or any other pollutant from reaching your drains, if they don’t you need a drainage plan which identifies the following:

• colour coding for surface water drains (blue) and foul sewer (red)
• unique numbers for each drain and sewer
• the direction of flow for all sewers
• whether the sewer is separate or combined
• the location of any septic tanks, balancing tanks, spill containment or overflow tanks
• oil separators and grease traps
• secondary containment structures or bunds
• the depth and location of any boreholes, wells or soakaways
• all surface water outlets
• the sewage treatment works the sewer connects to
• locations of pollution control equipment, such as oil spill kits.

Tip. If you have detailed drawings/building plans that identify where the drains are, this task is relatively simple. However, if you don’t, you will need to employ a specialist drain company to survey your property (see The next step).

For further information on drain survey companies, visit http://environment.indicator.co.uk (EN 06.03.07).