A MURROW farmer has been fined £2,000 after his drainage system collapsed, grossly polluting more than two kilometres of watercourse last April.
John Alan Dale, of Somerset Farm, Cants Drove, Murrow, appeared at Peterborough Magistrates Court today.
He was also ordered to pay a £2,500 contribution to costs.
The leak happened when a soakaway collapsed causing waste stored in pits to empty into a ditch on site that connected to a tributary of the Bishoplands Drain.
A rabbit had burrowed into the soakaway, resulting in half of the black, septic waste in the pits emptying to the ditch.
Speaking after the hearing, environment agency officer Richard Williams said: “The defendant did not consult the agency on construction of the soakaway.
“He failed to obtain an environmental permit and to ensure that contaminated effluent was adequately treated before disposal to the soakaway and watercourse.”
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