Firm fined £27k for dumping chemicals into Wolverhampton sewerage system

It is the second time that Midland Plating Company, based on Marston Industrial Estate, has been brought before the courts charged with discharging trade effluence.

More than 13 times the permitted amount of chromium was ditched, as well as excessive amounts of copper, nickel and zinc, Wolverhampton magistrates heard.

Severn Trent Water claims increasing incidents of chemical dumping are causing a problem at the company's Barnhurst treatment works in Oxley Moor Road.

Mr Phillip Crosbie, prosecuting on behalf of the water company, said Midland Plating Company, which employs around 90 people, held an environmental permit giving it consent to discharge a limited amount of chemicals but that it was depositing well in excess of that.

Twice the amount of zinc and more than four times the quantity of copper and eight times the amount of nickel was found in waste water by a Severn Trent Water technician on a routine system to the site on October 7 last year, said Mr Crosbie.

The firm said a person employed full-time specifically to monitor its chemical levels after it was fined £10,000 in 2007 for similar offences had temporarily left his post just before the inspection took place.

Mr Marcus Kraehling-Smith, defending, said: "Unfortunately on the day the inspector visited, the gentleman who monitored the system was away for half an hour beforehand and apparently there was some change in the water conditions."

The company has since installed more than £12,000 of new equipment which shuts down the process automatically if too much chemical or metal sediment tries to pass through, the court heard.

"This was a most unfortunate incident and the company deeply regrets it," said Mr Smith.

"But they took immediate action to mitigate the situation. I don't think they could have done any more."

The firm pleaded guilty to four offences of breaching the conditions of its effluence discharge permit. It was fined £6,000 for each offence and ordered to pay £3,607 prosecution costs.

Tom Haignton, commercial waste manager for Severn Trent Water, said the number of firms breaking the law was causing 'an issue' at the Barnhurst treatment works.

He said the effluence was normally treated and turned into 'sludge cakes' to be sold as fertiliser to farmers.

"When this sort of thing happens, not only is the company having to pay extra to have the excess chemicals removed but it is also losing out on income from selling the nutrient-rich material on," said Mr Haignton.