The UK festival was responsible for an accidental sewage leak causing thousands of gallons of waste to flow into the river Whitelake.
Back in June 2014, Glastonbury was packed with over 170,000 attendees resulting in huge amounts of human waste and sewage being generated. The waste was stored in 3 giant steel containers out of which one unfortunately sprung a leak causing 20,000 gallons of waste to seep into the Whitelake river and killing 42 fish, including brown trout.
Courtesy : news.images.itv.com
Though festival organizers took several immediate steps and worked along with multiple agencies to clear up the pollutants, district judge Simon Cooper said they could have contacted the authorities more quickly following the problem, but said it was largely dealt with well. The plaintiff, the Environment Agency claimed, at the court hearing, that Glastonbury had grown faster than it was capable of handling the waste created. Skip bins Sydney offer affordable and reliable skip hire service.
Judge Cooper ordered Glastonbury to pay £31,000, which included a fine of £12,000 and £19,000 towards prosecution costs. Cooper also expressed amusement at the level of detail the festival handled the situation and said that the festival had “low culpability” for the incident also praising their response and systems.
“I am satisfied that there was proper planning for the festival and no criticism is made of that. There was a waste management plan, there was a rivers and streams management plan. I am impressed by how responsive Glastonbury Festivals Ltd have been.”
Courtesy : i.telegraph.co.uk
John Cooper, the festival rep stated, “There’s no criticism of resources here or of equipment. The only criticism is that it should have been dealt with earlier.” John also said the festival donated money to charities including WaterAid, Oxfam and Greenpeace.
Festival founder Michael Eavis, said, “It’s a great result and I think we were listened to fairly. I don’t really think it was necessary to get this far. We pleaded guilty to make it easier for them yet they still wanted to pursue this case. I think it was a bit of a waste of time, to be honest with you. It wasn’t that serious a crime really. We did our very, very best when we found the leak – we really did all that we should have done within the timescale.”
Glastonbury is all set to hold its 2016 edition in four weeks featuring headliners like Muse, Adele and Coldplay. Initial weather forecasts predict chances of thunderstorms during the festival week. Though the festival has a history of rain, it has largely remained dry since 2010, except 2014 when rains caused flooding, and lightning forced the festival to be shut down for a brief time.