Foul mess oozed from illegal dump

Strathblane site will cost thousands to clean up

A waste disposal company has been fined £37,000 for running a tip which oozed putrid liquid and bubbled with stinking gas.

The 50-acre landfill site at Muirhouse Quarry, Milngavie Road, near Strathblane, was licensed to accept only inert waste such as stone and concrete.

But Stirling Sheriff Court heard that complaints were received from members of the public in 2009 and again in 2011 that household rubbish was being buried at the site, in contravention of the licence held by Hamilton-based Muirhouse Landfill Ltd.

Investigators found noninert waste including wood, plastics, polystyrene, carpet, metal, paper, letters, cardboard, shoes, toys, books, clothing, tyres, hessian sacks, green waste, black bin bags, barbed wire, catalogues and magazines had been dumped.

Prosecutor Fiona Caldwell said methane and hydrogen sulphide gas could be heard bubbling up from puddles on the site and there was “a black, putrid and offensive-smelling liquid” trickling from the waste mass.

Loads were also tipped at night, outwith the terms of the site’s licence.

Officials from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) dug 30 test pits and 21 were found to contain illegal waste. The site’s licence was suspended and Muirhouse Landfill Ltd, which the court was told now had no assets, was put in the hands of a liquidator.

Miss Caldwell said that SEPA will have to explore what should be done with the site, which had been rented to Muirhouse Landfill by a landowner who has since died.

The cost of exploratory ground works was put at £80,000.

Muirhouse Landfill pleaded guilty to breaching the 1999 Pollution Prevention and Control Act at the quarry between 2009 and 2012.

Susan Duff, advocate, for Muirhouse, said the firm had been run by 66-year-old Sheila Dow, who has since retired.

Mrs Duff said: “The directors very much regret the harm that’s been caused by this failed business venture.

“It’s apparent from the accounts that there was no financial gain.”

Sheriff William Gilchrist said the company had shown “wilful blindness”.

He said: “In my view the culpability was not negligence but involved actual foresight.

“There were significant adverse effects on the environment and certainly significant costs in relation to clean-up and restoration of the site.

“The difficulty I have is that the company has ceased trading and has no assets and any fine that I impose is simply not going to be paid.

“The penalty should simply reflect the court’s view of the gravity of the offence.”

The court heard that as a result of investigating the tip SEPA officials also checked out a company called Dow Waste Management Limited, which was run by Mrs Dow’s daughter Sheila, 45, of Cumbernauld and son William, 43, Homefarm Road, Cambusbarron.

Shelila Dow junior is the wife of fomer Scottish international skier Alain Baxter.

SEPA found drivers at Dow Waste Management’s depot on the Lenziemill Industrial Estate, Cumbernauld, had been filling in waste-transfer notes incorrectly.

On various occasions between 2009 and 2011 loads were described as “muck”, rather by than by a prescribed European waste category code .

The firm pleaded guilty to breaching the 1990 Environmental Protection Act and were fined £12,000.

Steve Love QC, for Dow Waste Management, said they had been “honest mistakes”.

Miss Caldwell, the fiscal, told the court it was accepted by the Crown that Sheila Dow jnr had no knowledge or involvement with what had been going on at Muirhouse Quarry.

The company has no assets. Any fine I impose is simply not going to be paid.