The dairy appealed its conviction for allowing cream to enter a brook from the land of its customer.
Held: Polluting matter did not need to be itself noxious or poisonous, it was enough that it stained or tinted the water as did cream. Though the land did not belong to the defendant, it was enough that the defendant’s customer permitted an escape as a result of a failure by the defendant. The landowner was under an obligation to carry out a risk assessment and respond to it.
Judges:
Lord Justice Kennedy Mr Justice Treacy
Citations:
[2004] EWHC 1710 (Admin), Times 10-Aug-2004
Links:
Statutes:
Water Resources Act 1991 85(1) 85(6) 271
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Welsh Water Authority v Williams Motors (Cwmdu) Ltd QBD 1-Dec-1988
Oil was supplied to Williams Motors by Autobrec Oils and there was spillage from an offset fuel pipe out of sight of the delivery driver. Some of the spilt oil got into the storm drainage, and thus into a canal. Williams Motors were charged under . .
Cited – Empress Car Company (Abertillery) Ltd v National Rivers Authority HL 22-Jan-1998
A diesel tank was in a yard which drained into a river. It was surrounded by a bund to contain spillage, but that protection was over ridden by an extension pipe from the tank to a drum outside the bund. Someone opened a tap on that pipe so that . .
Cited – Regina v Dovermoss Ltd CACD 8-Feb-1995
Contamination below the maximum set limits can still be pollution. A dry watercourse is controlled water, as are streams and drains. Pollution is an ordinary English word defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘to make physically impure, foul . .
Cited – Neath Rural District Council v Williams QBD 1951
A watercourse became silted by natural causes and the local authority served an abatement notice on the landowner, who failed to respond, and when prosecuted relied on a proviso which excluded from liability ‘any person other than the person by . .
Cited – Tesco Supermarkets Ltd v Nattrass HL 31-Mar-1971
Identification of Company’s Directing Mind
In a prosecution under the 1968 Act, the court discussed how to identify the directing mind and will of a company, and whether employees remained liable when proper instructions had been given to those in charge of a local store.
Held: ‘In the . .
Cited – Alphacell Ltd v Woodward HL 3-May-1972
The defendant operated a paper manufacturing plant which involved maintaining tanks of polluting liquid near the river, so that pollution would occur if they overflowed. There were pumps which ought normally to have drawn off the liquid and . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime, Environment
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.198840