Airport gets £900k fine for plane de-icer pollution
The airport, which cannot connect to a mains sewer and so is responsible for the run-off from its runways, pleaded guilty to three discharges of contaminated water into Diseworth Brook in January and February 2022.
Airport managing director Steve Griffiths apologised, and said it had taken "decisive action" and invested more than £10m in its drainage.
But sentencing the airport at Derby Crown Court on Monday, Judge Martin Hurst said it had failed to properly invest in its systems from 2015 onwards, and said the money being spent "should reasonably have been spent then".
He handed the airport - which he said was the second biggest freight airport in the UK and 14th largest in terms of passengers - a fine of £892,500 and costs of £65,687.54, as well as a victim surcharge.
The judge said the airport had been "reckless" and caused "risk to livestock and the residents of the village of Diseworth".
Sewage fungus
The court heard the systems to process water contaminated by de-icer - to be released into both the River Trent and Diseworth Brook - were installed in the year 2000, with a "useful service life" of 20 years.
Run-off from the essential de-icing, including of runways and aircraft, is held in a series of winter and summer ponds, which let water out at different times of the year, and hold different levels of contamination.
The court was told Environment Agency investigations had found defects throughout their systems, including with monitors, pumps and pond liners.
It led, on three occasions, to Diseworth Brook - which runs "straight through the middle of the village" - being polluted.
Levels of up to eight times the level allowed were detected on one occasion, the court heard.
This pollution causes outbreaks of sewage fungus, damaging water quality and harming plant life.
Judge Hurst said the investment of more than £10m in the systems since the breaches showed the airport had been responsible and taken action, albeit "five years too late".
Following the hearing, Mr Griffiths said: "I'd like to say sorry for the three breaches that we had in early 2022, where we discharged water beyond our permit into the local watercourses.
"We took decisive action at that point in time and we controlled those issues and that was ahead of any prosecution taking place."
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