GWE Biogas Limited has been ordered to pay £22,000 to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust after the unauthorised operation of an anaerobic digester tank at its Sandhill Biogas Plant in Kirkburn, Driffield, in August 2023.
The payment forms part of a wider package of enforcement undertakings issued by the Environment Agency against four Yorkshire companies, which together will pay nearly £470,000 to local charities following a series of environmental permit breaches.
The other companies involved are Cleveland Potash, which will pay £215,000 to the North York Moors National Park Authority after a mine brine discharge into local becks near Saltburn killed almost 700 fish in June 2022; Balfour Beatty Group, which will contribute £200,000 to Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust following multiple unauthorised silt discharges from a road construction site in East Leeds in 2020; and Energy Works (Hull), which will pay £30,000 across three local charities following non-compliance with its fire protection plan at its Hull plant in September 2020.
Enforcement undertakings are legally binding agreements requiring companies to take steps to prevent repetition of offences and remedy any harm caused. All four companies will also meet the Environment Agency’s investigation costs.
The Environment Agency said the payments would go directly to local charities delivering benefits for wildlife and communities across the region.
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