FISH KILLED BY SLURRY TANK LEAK 

Mar 16 2004, Daily Record

SCORES of fish were killed when farm slurry from a cracked 
tank poisoned a river, a court heard yesterday.

Environment protection workers feared the toxic waste, from 
a pig farm owned by the Scotpigs company, would reach the 
nearby Ythan River, one of Scotland's main trout rivers.

Callum McGregor, of the Scottish Environment Protection 
Agency, told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the Tarty Burn at Udny, 
Aberdeenshire, was completely black because of the spill.

He said: 'It was just a river of slurry. I had never seen 
anything like it before. You couldn't see through the water.'

Mr McGregor said he traced the slurry back to a cracked tank 
at Woodlands Farm and was told about half a million gallons 
had escaped.

Scotpigs managing director Arthur Simmers denies being 
responsible for the pollution.

Mr McGregor said he returned to the scene in the days 
following the incident and found several dead fish and eels.

James Davidson, 24, an assistant ecologist at SEPA, said: 
'The incident had a severe impact on the burn more significant 
than I had seen before. We didn't see a live fish all the 
time we were there.'

He said it would be at least two or three years before fish 
levels would return to the point they were at before the 
2002 incident.

The trial continues.