By Paul Reoch

A MAJOR poultry firm was fined £10,000 at Perth Sheriff Court yesterday for breaching previously agreed pollution levels from a chicken slaughtering factory in Coupar Angus.

Grampian Country Chickens could have faced a maximum fine of £40,000.

The court heard that “human error” led to effluent pouring from the building into the River Isla for at least an hour-and-a-half, breaking previously agreed levels.

The company have since spent £30,000 on improvements.

Marshalls Food Group, trading as Grampian Country Chickens, occupying premises at George Street, Coupar Angus, admitted that on October 9, they discharged effluent deriving from the slaughtering of poultry into sewers and sewage treatment works of a sewage authority, namely Scottish Water, in that levels from suspended solids, chemical oxygen and biochemical oxygen, which were set in an agreement dated December 1, 2004, were exceeded and were contrary to the Sewerage (Scotland) Act 1968.

Depute fiscal Robbie Brown said an agreement was in place between Marshall Food Group and Scottish Water, whereby treated effluent was discharged into water owned by them. Mr Brown said that checks were carried out at the plant in Coupar Angus and it was obvious something was amiss.

“It was seen just by looking at the water and readings taken that the levels had been exceeded,” Mr Brown said.

The court was told that levels of suspended solids should be 500mgs per litre, but that these were 827, a rise of almost 60%.

Similarly, the biochemical level was double its normal amount, and the bio-oxygen rate should have been 500mgs per litre, and was 926mgs.

Mr Brown explained that an iron compound was used in the treatment of the effluent but that an employee had wrongly assumed it needed more chemicals added, when in fact it should have been reduced. “This led to untreated effluent flowing into the River Isla for about an hour,” Mr Brown added. “The treatment plant was overwhelmed and couldn’t function properly as a result. However, I don’t know the detriment this had on the plant life in the water.

“There had been previous occasions with regard to this, so the company should have been well aware of the problem. This was human error caused by an employee with inadequate training.”

Malcolm Gunnyeon, appearing on behalf of Grampian Country Chickens, said that the firm had similar operations throughout the UK. “The company treat their obligations seriously and have taken measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

“The problem was noticed by the engineer manager and the effluent was discharged for up to an hour-and-a-half at an unacceptable quality. The factory was affected for around three days after.”

Mr Gunnyeon said that the effluent was checked by looking at the colour of the water and readings taken, and pointed out that readings taken by Dundee City Council were lower than those carried out by Scottish Water. But he conceded that improvements had to be made and that £30,000 had been spent on those.

Sentencing Marshalls Food Group, Sheriff McFarlane said, “I note the company has not shunned its responsibilities and installed a sophisticated system at considerable cost. The fine would have been £12,500 but I have reduced this to £10,000 due to the early plea.”

Grampian Country Foods was last week “named and shamed” by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

The plant in Coupar Angus has received two enforcement notices, “many odour complaints, “and was guilty of poor site management,” in a report by SEPA.

The SEPA judgment means the factory will be subject to extra inspections in the coming months.