November 14, 2005
North Lanarkshire Council has been fined £4000, after admitting poor management by failing to adequately cover the waste at Auchinlea Landfill Site and to allowing polluted waste water to leak from its on site containment system.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) had been working with North Lanarkshire Council to improve the site. However, in January 2005 officers from SEPA identified activities that meant the licence conditions set by SEPA were not being met. The conditions within the licence ensure that activities carried out on the site do not impact on the surrounding environment.
SEPA officers found waste, including clinical waste, uncovered at the site several times during a week long period. There was also evidence that where cover had been applied, it was not thick enough. North Lanarkshire Council should ensure that the waste disposed of at the site was covered on daily basis with soil or similar material. This ensured that the visual impact of the waste was limited and that smells and vermin were discouraged. It was also found that polluted waste water at Auchinlea was not being contained adequately. All polluted waste water (leachate) is to be collected in a suitable manner. Systems should have been in place to contain it, to prevent any potential risk of entry into watercourses above or below ground.
These problems led to SEPA temporarily suspending the waste management licence for the site while repair works were undertaken by the Council and reporting the matter to the Procurator Fiscal.
The Council pleaded guilty at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Thursday 3 November. The enforcement action resulted in improvement at the site and SEPA continues to work with the Council to ensure on going improvement and compliance.
John Higgins, investigating officer for SEPA said: "The lack of daily cover and the poor management of the leachate system at Auchinlea Landfill Site meant that conditions of the licence issued by SEPA were not being met. Although already working to improve the operation of Auchinlea with North Lanarkshire Council, the activities witnessed by our staff during inspections of the site meant that enforcement action had to be taken. It is unacceptable for waste to be left uncovered, giving birds and vermin possible access to it. If any leachate from the site had managed to enter a natural watercourse, the effect on life in the water would have been devastating."
SEPA's national waste plan and area waste plans (available at http://www.sepa.org.uk/nws/guidance/nwp.htm ) detail how Scotland is going to move away from disposing of its waste to landfill sites and encourages reducing, reusing and recycling our waste where possible.
Issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency public relations team
www.sepa.org.uk
