SLURRY FROM FARM POLLUTED BURN, COURT TOLD 

LAURA GRANT, Press & Journal

09:00 - 16 March 2004 
  
Slurry which leaked from a cracked tank at an Aberdeenshire 
pig farm polluted a watercourse more than six miles away 
and killed thousands of fish, a court heard yesterday. 

Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told it could take a decade for 
fish stocks to recover from the leak.

The incident is alleged to have happened at Woodlands Farm, 
Udny, on April 23, 2002.

Scotpigs Ltd, of 6 Bon Accord Square, Aberdeen, and Arthur 
Simmers, 62, of Mains of Bogfechel, Whiterashes, both deny 
knowingly permitting poisonous, noxious or polluting matter 
to enter a tributary of the Tarty Burn via a field drain.

Simmers is named as a director of the company. A statement 
that there was pollution at the farm was lodged in advance 
of the trial.

Giving evidence, Scottish Environment Protection Agency 
officer Calum McGregor, 30, said he had never seen anything 
like the incident at Woodlands Farm before.

The alarm was raised by Simmers when he contacted the agency 
early in the morning of April 23.

Mr McGregor told fiscal depute Wendy Lennox that he and 
colleague Rachel Cockburn went to the farm, stopping to 
check various stretches of the watercourse for signs of 
pollution along the way.

He said they found no signs of slurry in the water at 
Rosebank Farm, around five miles from the site, but did 
discover evidence of contamination at the bridge at Millbank, 
near Woodlands Farm.

"I looked over the bridge and the whole river was just a 
river of slurry," said Mr McGregor. "It was completely black 
and you couldn't tell the depth of the water. I have never 
seen anything like it before."

He said that, on arrival at the farm, they saw the damaged 
concrete tank and a pool of slurry in a field beside the 
farm buildings. A river of slurry about 30ft wide had 
spilled down the field drain towards a watercourse near 
the tank.

Mr McGregor said workmen were fixing a metal plate over 
the crack in the tank to stop any further leaks while 
others were using tankers to suck the slurry from the 
pool to spread on neighbouring fields.

Two dams had also been built, one to form the slurry pool 
and the other in the watercourse to prevent the slurry 
from travelling further downstream, the court was told.

Mr McGregor said he understood the tank had a capacity of 
around 4.5million litres and had been three-quarters full 
prior to the leak.

Mr McGregor said he left Woodlands Farm around four hours 
later, after taking various water samples. On returning to 
Rosebank Farm he said he discovered the contamination had 
spread to it. He also discovered slurry in the water at 
Wateridge Muir, over six miles from Woodlands Farm.

Mr McGregor returned to Woodlands Farm on April 24. He said 
he found the discharge of slurry had stopped but dead trout 
and eels had begun appearing in parts of the river.

Ythan water bailiff Alexander Milne, 61, told the court 
that the 10-mile stretch of burn from Woodlands Farm to 
the Ythan estuary holds an estimated 34,000 fish. A further 
40,000 trout had been released into the area around six 
weeks before the leak.

"When the burn began to clear we saw masses of dead fish, 
trout around 6-8in and smaller, and hundreds of eels and 
other river life were all dead," he said. "The Ythan is 
one of the best estuaries and the Tarty Burn is one of the 
areas for breeding fish. It could be 10 years before we know 
if the burn is coming back to the order it was before it 
happened.

"I have seen a few pollution incidents but, with hindsight, 
this was one of the worst."

During cross-examination by Simmers' defence agent Peter 
Rockwell, Mr McGregor admitted that he had not attempted 
to contact the other named director of Scotpigs Ltd, James 
Innes, in relation to the incident.

The trial before Sheriff Kieran McLernan continues.