A COUPLE whose business caused a pollution spill that killed more than 15,200 fish have been ordered to pay almost £63,000 in fines and costs.

Mark and Anne Bennion of Rose Hill Recycling in Dymock pleaded guilty at Hereford Magistrates’ Court to discharging digestate fertiliser into Preston Brook and the River Leadon on July 22, 2016.

They were each fined £5,500 and ordered to pay £25,798 in costs and a victim surcharge of £170 – a combined total of £62,936.

Ebony Mitchell-Whyte, prosecuting, told the court how negligence on the 1,100-acre farm’s irrigation system led to the spillage, when an employee failed to close a partly opened valve linked to a standpipe in a field.

He had been instructed to fertilise an orchard at Rose Farm, but did not adequately check the standpipe valve cap, which had been left open by a contractor.

When the worker turned on the system to take the fertiliser from a lagoon to the orchard, it discharged out of the standpipe into the Preston Brook just metres away at the rate of 100 tonnes an hour, creating the worst discharge in a decade in the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire region.

The spill was finally discovered five hours later when another employee saw the digestate pouring into the watercourse, by which time 500 tonnes had escaped, killing thousands of fish downstream, including brown trout, chub, eel, dace, roach, lamprey and bream.

Surveys conducted since the incident show the fish population in the watercourse has been "significantly adversely impacted", the court heard on Friday, November 24.

The Leadon is an important habitat for eels and a significant number of adults were lost as a result of the ammonia pollution, which affected a 19km stretch of the river.

Adam Farrer, defending, said Mark Bennion had liaised with Environment Agency officers as soon as the pollution came to light, and had submitted a plan for dredging the brook to remove all contaminates, which was completed on August 12, 2016.

The Bennions were both of good character, had shown remorse throughout the investigation and court hearing, and had tightened up safety procedures at the farm, he said.

After the hearing, an EA spokesman said: "This was one of the worst pollution incidents on a watercourse in the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire area in the last 10 years, which significantly affected a stretch of the River Leadon catchment.

"We are pleased that the court has accepted the seriousness of the case and imposed appropriate penalties.

"Agriculture uses 70% of the land in England and farmers have a major impact on the environment. Most farmers act responsibly and we work with the industry to respond to incidents, tackle the root causes of pollution and promote good practice.

"But where farmers are responsible for serious pollution incidents, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action, including prosecution. Agriculture is the single biggest source of serious pollution incidents and all farmers have a duty to prevent it."

Since the incident, the EA has restocked the river with more than 15,000 fish, and the restocking process will continue over the next four years.