Following confirmation that discoloured discharge entered the Cleddau river from an effluent treatment plant at First Milk, an investigation by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is underway.
First Milk confirmed that there was “a period of two hours” on Saturday, July 22 when discoloured discharge came from the “Haverfordwest Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) to the western Cleddau river”.
Fiona Hourahine, regulation and permitting operations manager at NRW, said: “Natural Resources Wales received a report from First Milk of a discharge incident on Saturday, 22 July and this is being investigated.
“We are also continuing our investigations following multiple concerns of pollution incidents on the western Cleddau.
“We take our role as environmental regulator seriously and where any non-compliance is found, we will take further action to ensure permits are complied with effectively.”
First Milk apology
Shelagh Hancock, chief executive of First Milk said: “I want to acknowledge and apologise for the issues that we have had at our Haverfordwest effluent treatment facility that have led to discoloured discharges and solids going into the river.”
Hancock explained that First Milk is actively working to “ensure” the risk of “any reoccurence in the future” is minimised.
Hancock said: “This includes the installation of additional filtration mechanisms and we have stepped up our levels of monitoring of the treatment plant to ensure we are making positive and effective changes.
“While we’ve taken these immediate actions, we’re committed to making continued investment to reduce our impact further.
“There are many contributing factors that affect the water quality in the western Cleddau, we are engaging with the local community and other organisations to understand what can be done more widely to improve the local environment in the long term,” she added.
“As a business that is committed to sustainability and to doing the right thing, we are taking these issues very seriously and are working hard to make things better.”
A statement from First Milk on Monday July 24, shared a similar approach at the time, as it announced: “We are working hard to minimise the risk of issues arising with the ETP at our Haverfordwest Creamery, including around the clock monitoring and the recent installation of additional filtration mechanisms.”
The statement from First Milk explained that the weather experienced over last weekend contributed to the incident with the discoloured discharge into the Cleddau river.
“Due to the exceptionally high levels of rainfall on Saturday, combined with some short-term operational challenges, the plant was unable to cope adequately for a small period of time, which led to the short-term discoloration,” First Milk stated.
“We immediately took steps to rectify this situation whilst self-reporting this incident to Natural Resources Wales.”
