Dairy Crest has been fined £1.5m by the Environment Agency – the largest such fine ever awarded in the South West. The UK’s largest dairy processing facility, and one of the biggest manufacturing sites in Europe, produces 57,000 tons of dairy products a year, including the popular brands Davidstow Cheddar and Cathedral City. Some 1.3 million litres of milk is brought to site daily from about 370 local dairy farms.

The EA told Truro Crown Court that the environmental performance of Dairy Crest Ltd had been “unacceptable for too long and needs to significantly improve”.

“Ever since the site changed production to focus on whey processing, particularly to produce powder used in baby milk and other products, the effluent being discharged into the River Inny has been more challenging to treat. This has resulted in unacceptable pollution of the local river, which is a tributary of the River Tamar, causing significant harm to fish and other aquatic wildlife. Another issue has been foul odours which have often affected the lives of local residents,” the EA stated.

Dairy Crest previously pleaded guilty to 21 of 27 charges brought by the Environment Agency. For committing this catalogue of offences, the firm was fined £1.52m yesterday. It had already agreed to pay costs of £272,747.

The offences included:

• Releasing a harmful biocide, used to clean the wastewater tanks and pipework, into the river and killing thousands of fish over a 2 kilometre stretch on 16 August 2016.
• Coating the River Inny with a noxious, black sludge for 5 kilometres in 2018, through a release of a mass of suspended solids in July and August 2018.
• Consistently exceeding limits on substances like phosphorous and suspended solids entering the River Inny, from 2016 up to 2021.
• Numerous leaks of part-treated effluent into nearby watercourses and onto the land.
• Foul odours repeatedly affecting residents over many years.
• Failing to tell the Environment Agency within 24 hours of when things had gone significantly wrong on site, on 7 separate occasions.

Helen Dobby, area director of the Environment Agency, said: “As a large and well-established operator, Dairy Crest Ltd should be up to the job of maintaining the required environmental standards. Instead, it has over a period of many years failed to comply with its environmental permit and not been able to protect local people and the environment.

“We acknowledge that Dairy Crest Ltd has been taking steps to remedy the various problems, but unfortunately, these actions were not swift enough on many occasions and proved to be ineffective in stopping pollution.”

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