 Dozens of swans were polluted when the oil leaked into the Orwell Estuary |
An oil storage company which polluted an East Anglian estuary, poisoning dozens of swans, has been fined. Two swans died and 40 more were contaminated after the accidental oil leak in February last year at Orwell Estuary in Felixstowe, Suffolk.
Felixstowe Tank Developments was told to pay a total of �32,000 by magistrates in Ipswich.
The company had pleaded guilty to the leak, which left an oil slick as far down the coast as Harwich and Walton.
The court heard 10 to 20 tonnes of oil bled from a thumbnail-sized hole as oil was being pumped from a ship along a pipeline.
The hole was caused by corrosion which the Environment Agency, which brought the prosecution, said could have been prevented if the inspection and maintenance system has been adequate.
The company was fined �18,000, ordered to pay �12,000 to the Environment Agency and �2000 to RSPCA which cared for the oiled swans.
The company said it regretted the incident. It insisted the pipe had been regularly checked and said the corrosion would have been difficult to spot.
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