Eddie Stobart Group fined £34,000

National logistics company Eddie Stobart Group has been ordered to pay more than £34,000 after a warehouse refrigeration system leaked ammonia into a watercourse.

The firm appeared before Mansfield magistrates to plead guilty to causing a water discharge, contrary to Section 12(1)(b) and 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.

The company was fined £30,000 with costs of £4,040.

The court hear that the Environment Agency received a report of pollution in August 2011 at the Cuttail brook and ponds at Annesley, near Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire. An Agency officer noted a smell of ammonia at the inlet to one of the ponds where a large number of dead fish were found.

The Agency traced the smell to surface water drains serving the Sherwood Business Park Water samples from the pond later revealed high levels of ammonia, which is very soluble and toxic to fish.