Waste soil from a water cress farm

[Brisel]

Is this a manure or does it need an Environment Agency deployment licence? It's sediment captured from the outfalls from the water cress beds. I'm off to see the grower shortly and he is adamant that he is running an agricultural operation.

He is prepared to cart it to the field & I will spread it with muck spreaders after harvest.

@360farmsupport @NeilT123 ?

 

[Pond digger]

I wouldn’t be discouraging him.

 

[Yale]

Any chemical residues?

 

[Brisel]

Any chemical residues?

No pesticides allowed on water cress. A bit of fertilser, compost, seed and water are the only inputs.

 

[Bald Rick]

Are these the beds at Bere Regis? Harvesting when I was there 3-4 weeks ago

Would have thought it would have come under the same exemption as spreading river dredgings

 

[michael N123]

Why’s he not spreading it back onto his land ?

 

[Brisel]

No. His water cress farm. I’ll take the manure/compost to spread on my own land.

 

[tw15]

No. His water cress farm. I’ll take the manure/compost to spread on my own land.

Would be nice if you had several 1000 ton of it you couldn't get nicer stuff if you tried .

 

[RushesToo]

Seem to remember that watercress likes slightly alkali water. What drops out is likely to be higher pH - worth checking as it may make you want to spread it selectively.

 

[Brisel]

It will be spread on high pH chalk soils so a light dressing occasionally is hardly going to have much effect on what is already a massive buffer of calcium. It will only be a couple of hundred tonnes/year.

 

[tw15]

A good dollop on acidic patches / poor patches in fields might do more good . Tip it out and push it around with tele handler .

 

[tw15]

Well it would only be returning your own soil as the river / stream starts at yours if i'm right so it would be going back to where it come from .

 

[neilo]

I seem to remember watching a program recently, highlighting residues from the outlet of a water cress farm (in Dorset iirc). The farm itself was using no pesticides, but they had allowed one of their old beds to be used as an outlet from a neighbouring packing plant, seemingly to get round restrictions for that plant’s outlet. The resultant outflow to the river was testing very high for various residues irrc, and wrecking the river habitat.

Best make sure it’s not the same place looking to clean up after the EA came knocking perhaps?

 

[Steevo]

Are these the beds at Bere Regis? Harvesting when I was there 3-4 weeks ago

Would have thought it would have come under the same exemption as spreading river dredgings

I thought river dredgings were allowed to be placed “on site” but if carter away they immediately become waste.

 

[Wastexprt]

Is this a manure or does it need an Environment Agency deployment licence? It's sediment captured from the outfalls from the water cress beds. I'm off to see the grower shortly and he is adamant that he is running an agricultural operation.

He is prepared to cart it to the field & I will spread it with muck spreaders after harvest.

@360farmsupport @NeilT123 ?

Hmm, a tricky one. @Steevo is right, if it's moved it can't be used under a D1 exemption. As is often the case, it's the 'at the place of production' definition that really limits exemptions and forces the operation in to a fee related deployment.

It's not manure and I can't see that this would fit under an exemption, as such it would need a deployment (£1718 EA Fee etc), but I'm willing to be proved incorrect. Please see here https://assets.publishing.service.g...R2010_No_4_mobile_plant_for_landspreading.pdf that even some 'agricultural' operations are viewed as non - agricultural with regard to their outputs.

Cycnically, I will suggest that, as the EA now has to be 'revenue neutral', it's decisions now have a financial, rather than environmental focus.

When I get a minute I'll post about the proposed changes to the exemption regime.

 

[NeilT123]

Is this a manure or does it need an Environment Agency deployment licence?

Good morning, sorry but this is something I don't have any recent experience of. My suspicion is that it will be classed as a waste but I suggest that you get a definitive answer from the EA.

 

[Hesstondriver]

I seem to remember watching a program recently, highlighting residues from the outlet of a water cress farm (in Dorset iirc). The farm itself was using no pesticides, but they had allowed one of their old beds to be used as an outlet from a neighbouring packing plant, seemingly to get round restrictions for that plant’s outlet. The resultant outflow to the river was testing very high for various residues irrc, and wrecking the river habitat.

Best make sure it’s not the same place looking to clean up after the EA came knocking perhaps?

I think this was countryfile

 

[neilo]

I think this was countryfile

It could have been. If not, it was a program like that. I only ever skim through Countryfile these days to get to the weather, stopping at anything that looks remotely ag related (so not much).

 

[teslacoils]

Put fence round heap.
Put cow in fence.
Cow poos.
Soil now spoilt bedding.

Is it now manure than can be exported and spread? If it's only ten or so trailers surely a bit of creativity can be figured out to work with the Rules....

 

[Steevo]

Put fence round heap.
Put cow in fence.
Cow poos.
Soil now spoilt bedding.

Is it now manure than can be exported and spread? If it's only ten or so trailers surely a bit of creativity can be figured out to work with the Rules....

I think you’ve just created contaminated waste.....