Last week we reported that the fracking firm Cuadrilla had breached its environmental permits at its Preston New Road (PNR) shale gas exploration site three times already this year.
Another inspection report has since been published by the Environmental Agency (EA). Issued on 6 October, it reveals two further permit breaches in mid-June, which resulted in an official warning to Cuadrilla.
Leaving aside the question of why it has taken the EA so long to release this information, this means Cuadrilla actually breached its environment permits five times in its first seven months of operation to 1 August.
The latest breaches relate to recurrent problems with drainage of surface water at the site, which Cuadrilla told the PNR community liaison group meeting in late June had been fully resolved.
On this occasion, Cuadrilla reported to the EA during a 14 June site inspection that ‘silt-contaminated’ water had escaped from the well pad via an ‘electrical conduit’ and that the company had already investigated the issue and taken remedial action. The EA compliance report notes that:
‘A ducting manhole was identified at a low point along the western boundary of the site. The manhole overflowed and spilled onto ground which spread across land. A quantity of the silt contaminated surface waste saturated the ground and flowed overland into a field drain which then discharged to a tributary of Carr Bridge Brook.'
This is the third time this year that silt-contaminated water from Cuadrilla’s operations has ended up in a tributary of Carr Bridge Brook. Although the EA was not able to identify any pollution resulting from this latest ‘unauthorised’ water release, it classified the incident as one that was likely to have a ‘minor environmental effect’. It reported that:
'An inspection was conducted by EA officers along this watercourse which did not identify any pollution caused by this incident. A programme of routine sampling is currently being carried out to monitor water quality and detect any changes. A review of sampling results did not identify any change in water quality.
Though no discharge to this watercourse was observed by EA officers at the time of the inspection it is likely that any impact on the tributary of Carr Bridge Brook would have been minimal.'
The EA compliance report notably does not state whether Cuadrilla told them the date when the discharge occurred, only that it reported it to them during the site inspection on 14 June. We have asked the EA for clarification on this and will update with their reply.
Following other revelations this week by DrillorDrop and DesmogUK that Cuadrilla has been attempting to change the rules to allow night deliveries of equipment at its site, news of these latest breaches will only add to local residents’ concerns.
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