A waste transport company has been ordered to pay £68,500 after hundreds of litres of a liquid containing diluted cyanide leaked from a lorry. The leak happened after a container was ruptured as the driver began moving it around, using a forklift truck, at an industrial estate in Heanor, Derbyshire. The liquid escaped onto the floor before entering the drainage system and natural waterways following the spill on 6 February 2018, the Environment Agency said.
Officials took samples of the dead fish, with all of the 73 sent for testing found to have died from cyanide poisoning. On Wednesday, the company was fined £16,000 and ordered to pay £52,500 in costs after earlier pleading guilty to causing an illegal water discharge.