More than 4km of the Whitelake River was polluted after approximately 20,000 gallons of untreated sewage escaped from a temporary storage tank on a farm at Pilton in June 2014 and effectively wiped out the local trout population.
Glastonbury Festival plead guilty to the offence at an earlier hearing. The Environment Agency (EA) also asked that an incident from last year’s event involving overflow from a tank fed into by the festival’s ‘long-drop’ toilets also be taken into consideration.
During a two-day Newton hearing this week, Bristol Magistrates Court heard how the music festival’s monitoring team failed to alert EA staff in the agreed manner after sewage leaked into a tributary of the Whitelake River.
Hearing the organisers had been issued a caution after the 2010 festival, Judge Simon Cooper ordered that a fine of £12,000 now be payable along with £19,000 costs for the two offences.
Environment Agency environment manager Ian Withers said: “While we recognise the Glastonbury Festival provides enjoyment to tens of thousands of people and raises money for a number of good causes, the organisers have a responsibility to ensure it does not cause harm to the environment.
“The festival is held in a beautiful part of the Somerset countryside and we want to see it remain that way. This was a serious pollution incident that had a significant impact on water quality and the fish population of the Whitelake River over some distance.”