Latest news from Harper Adams University College

ADBA MEMBER PRESS RELEASE

Dr David Llewellyn, Vice-Chancellor, Harper Adams University College:

Following the incident that took place on Tuesday afternoon and evening where we suffered a leak of digestate from a storage tank on our AD system, the clean-up operation continues to take place.

 

Yesterday [Wed 20] the leak was held behind a bund that had been temporarily repaired following the initial incident. A fleet of tankers then worked to move the digestate from behind the bund and other areas where the spill had taken place.

 

Harper Adams staff and local contractors have worked tirelessly for two days to remove the digestate, create dams and ditches and to block culverts to minimise the loss to local watercourses and the impact on the local environment. Severn Trent Water has assisted by removing the spillage to their nearby sewage treatment works to be processed.

 

We continue to work closely with the Environment Agency, who have oxygenated the watercourse, and with other local services to assess the impact of the incident.

 

At around 17.15 yesterday, I was joined by a representative from the Environment Agency on BBC Radio Shropshire to update the public about the incident.

 

We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and are now in the process of conducting an investigation into what happened and why.

 

We hope that if incidents similar to this occur elsewhere, those involved will also alert the Environment Agency at the first instance and work with them closely in any subsequent incident management and clean-up operations.

Please contact the Harper Adams University Press Office with any enquiries: press@harper-adams.ac.uk.