Environment Agency fines Ilchester Estate almost £28,000
Ilchester Estates failed to comply with water licence conditions
Ilchester Estates has paid nearly 28 thousand pounds to the Environment Agency for persistently taking more water from the River Frome than it was licensed to.
The Dorset estate takes water from a spring at Evershot for its homes, offices, gardens and farms.
The Environment Agency found that more than 3 Olympic size swimming pools worth of water was wrongly taken from the chalk stream during December 2022 and July 2023, some during a drought.
Ilchester Estates was allowed to abstract up to 66.6 cubic metres of water a day, but following an investigation by the Environment Agency, it was found that between December 2022 and July 2023 the authorised licence limit had been exceeded by a total of nearly 7,500 cubic metres.
The estate has now paid a variable monetary penalty of £19,777.69, plus additional costs of £8,298.60, to the Environment Agency.
The penalty came after the Agency had previously warned the estate to stop over-abstracting water.
In 2018, the estate said steps would be taken to reduce the amount of water being taken, but amounts abstracted continued to be above the permitted level each year through to 2023.
Senior environment officer for the Environment Agency, Carolyn Lane said: “Chalk streams are stunningly beautiful, but ecologically sensitive, watercourses. Where companies or individuals hold licences to take water from them, they cannot ignore the conditions attached and take as much water as they like.
“In this case, the Ilchester Estate not only deliberately flouted the conditions, they did so during a drought, when it is likely that damage will have been done to the river and the surrounding environment it supports.”
The headwater reaches of the Dorset Frome have been endorsed as a Flagship Chalk Stream catchment by Wessex Water. It is one of only 200 chalk streams in the world, of which 85 per cent are in the UK. The streams contain mineral-rich pure water and are havens for wildlife.