River polluting contractor fined

A company has been fined £500 after a river tributary in Cornwall was polluted with mud and silt.

J McArdle Contracts Limited pleaded guilty to causing poisonous, noxious or polluting matter to enter controlled waters of the West Looe River.

Silt levels were found to be nearly 3,000 times greater than other areas.

The pollution was found to come from a broking coupling in a dirty water pipeline. The contractors claimed this was done by vandals.

The Environment Agency was called to the Connon Stream at East Taphouse on 17 June 2003.

Officers found that the normally clear stream had turned a muddy brown.

Water samples taken from below Connon Bridge contained silt levels nearly 3,000 times greater than those upstream of the site, the court was told.

Magistrates in East Cornwall were told J McArdle Contracts, of Wembley in Middlesex, had been brought in to carry out excavation work at the site.