Welsh farmer fined for silt pollution incident

A farmer who polluted a two-mile stretch of a South Wales watercourse with silt during flood alleviation work has been fined by magistrates.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) was alerted to the incident after members of the public reported seeing discoloured water in Nant Castellau, a stream that flows into Nant Muchudd, a tributary of the River Ely.

See also: Welsh dairy farmers fined over slurry store collapse

This discolouration was caused by silt that had entered the water during pond construction work on land adjacent.

Farmer Huw Pritchard, of Castellau Fach Farm, pleaded guilty to causing silt pollution.

He was fined £250 by magistrates sitting at Merthyr and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £100 and costs of £850 to NRW.

The level of fines for environmental offences are based on the financial means of a defendant.

Mr Pritchard’s solicitor told the court he was earning £150 a week as a farmer.

Nant Castellau silt pollution © NRW

The incident happened in October 2022 when he was building a pond and banks near the stream.

This was to resolve flooding issues, but he didn’t have permission from NRW for this.

There were no pollution prevention measures in place to stop silt laden water runoff from entering the watercourse.

NRW said high levels of suspended solids in rivers reduce water quality and harm ecology, killing insects and, at very high levels, fish too.

Siltation can also impact fish spawning grounds.

NRW operations manager Fiona Hourahine said Mr Pritchard had been co-operative during the investigation.

However, the construction work was so close to the stream that without permission or any mitigation measures in place it had been ‘’reckless”.