A brewery has been fined £100,000 for polluting a tributary of the Thames in Hampshire.

Molson Coors Brewery (UK) Ltd was sentenced by Basingstoke Magistrates Court on 17 March after pleaded guilty to two offences: causing an illegal water discharge activity and breaching its environmental permit.



It was fined £100,000 with £31,586 costs for breaching the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.

The Environment Agency (EA) received reports of fungus in a stream outside a residential development in Alton, Hampshire. EA officers traced the pollution to Molson Coors’ Alton brewery. Trade effluent was seen discharging into a culvert of the Lasham drain, which carries surface water runoff in the River Wey, through cracks and defects in the culvert chamber.

The company had failed to respond to the regular monitoring and visual inspections it was obliged to carry out as a requirement of its environmental permit. This monitoring clearly indicated that there was a serious problem in the Lasham drain.

The presence of large quantities of sewage fungus indicated that very high nutrient organic matter was entering the Lasham drain.

The court heard that the drainage problems that caused the pollution led to a significant reduction in the water’s biological quality at Lasham drain and downstream in the Wey North, compared with upstream.

The court heard that there had been gutters on the building known as the “boiler room” located next to a trade effluent chamber that ran directly to the Lasham drain.

The gutters had been removed when the building was extended and the chamber was converted from a storm water drain to a trade waste effluent drain from this section of the building.

When the alterations were made the contractors had used a liner which did not seal the chamber to divert the trade effluent, resulting in not completely blocking the existing pipe and pathway to the Lasham drain.

In a statement, Molson Coors said it was serious about environmental compliance and regretted the “isolated incident”.

“We wholly respect the magistrates’ decision and recognise this matter is now closed.

“Molson Coors acknowledges it was a contributor to an already existing problem and we will continue to watch with interest as the Environment Agency pursues its investigation into other third parties’ involvement in this case.”