A FARM where a controversial energy-from-waste plant was proposed has been ordered to pay fines and costs of £9,515 after it killed hundreds of fish by polluting a water course with slurry.

Reed Farms, of Cleave Farm, Templeton, near Tiverton, had admitted two charges under the Water Resources Act.

Rackenford farmer Winston Reed has been fined £9,515 for a pollution incident which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of fish, top right; above right, efforts to raise oxygen levels Marcus Thompson MDG030908_MT05_04

They related to an incident where slurry was not ploughed into a field within a specified timeframe, and a leakage from a poorly-maintained waste pipe.

After the most serious of the two incidents, in September 2009, Environment Agency inspectors were alerted by a member of the public to pollution at a pond on Witheridge Moor fed by the Little Dart, and found around 1,000 dead and dying fish.

The water had turned green in several places and tests showed oxygen levels were low.

The dead fish were mostly roach and rudd.

Officers from the agency tried to improve the situation, using pumps and hydrogen peroxide to raise oxygen levels in the pond.

The second breach of environment legislation was discovered on February 10, 2010, when inspectors visited the farm. The business's owner, 38-year-old Winston Reed, recently lost a two-year planning battle to build the Tiverton Energy Centre, a biomass plant which would convert slurry and abattoir waste into energy.

He told the Gazette the pollution was simply due to the "wettest summer on record".

"We had been waiting for a weather window in 2009 so we could spread slurry and then, unfortunately, there was a major cloudburst and it washed into the watercourse," he said.

"Under the legislation we would have been exempt if it was classified as an extraordinary act of God, but it was deemed not to be.

"We wanted to build a plant here which would turn slurry into harmless pellets and create energy at the same time, with biomass this sort of unfortunate accident would be much less likely to take place."

Mr Reed was unavailable to comment after the sentencing, which took place at Central Devon Magistrates' Court earlier this month.

Reed Farms, a limited company, was fined £4,000 for the more serious offence, £2,500 for the second offence, £3,000 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Ian Cook, director of the River Exe Foundation, campaigns for better management of the Exe and its tributaries.

He said the Little Dart was important for salmon and trout spawning and he hoped the fines would make other farms ensure they manage slurry correctly.

"The lesson has to go out that if you pollute the river there will be no excuse and that the fines are getting greater," he said.

Matt O'Brien, of the Environment Agency, said: "As this incident demonstrates, there can be serious consequences when these farm operations go wrong with large numbers of fish dying unnecessarily."