Paint company fined £650,000

A multi-national paint company has been fined £650,000 and ordered to pay costs of £144,992 following the discharge of hazardous waste from a tank located at a decommissioned paint testing facility on a Devon estuary. Sediment samples taken in 2015 from the estuary and from the tank by the Environment Agency were found to contain tributyltin (TBT), a chemical originally used for anti-fouling of ships but banned since the 1980s, along with other heavy metals. Charges brought were (1) the failure to meet a discharge consent and (2) the release of a controlled waste.