A DAIRY company has reported itself to Natural Resources Wales and apologised after releasing ‘discoloured discharge’ in to the Western Cleddau river.  

First Milk confirmed that the discharge was released in to the river from its Effluent Treatment Plant in Haverfordwest for a two-hour period on Saturday, July 22.

The company said the “exceptionally high levels of rainfall” were to blame for the discharge, along with “some short-term operational challenges”.

First Milk has said it “immediately took steps to rectify this situation” and was continuing to work with technical partners to reduce the impact of the plant.  

This comes after, last month, Welsh Water officials described as “a significant amount of dairy-type product” was discharged from the Merlin’s Bridge Wastewater Treatment Works in to the Western Cleddau.

The Western Telegraph has raised concerns about possible pollution levels in the Western Cleddau previously, after visiting the site at Fortune's Frolic – just off Clay Lane – with Simon Walters.

Mr Walters, who has been closely monitoring the Cleddau's water standards for several decades, fears that unless urgent works are carried out to prevent further pollution, the river is facing what he described as “ecological extinction”.

Following the latest incident, a First Milk spokesperson said: “On Saturday, July 22 we had a period of around two hours when the discharge from our Haverfordwest Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) to the Western Cleddau river was discoloured.

“We wholeheartedly apologise for this.

“We are working hard to minimise the risk of issues arising with the ETP at our Haverfordwest Creamery, including around the clock monitoring and the recent installation of additional filtration mechanisms, which we are still commissioning.

“Unfortunately, despite these changes, due to the exceptionally high levels of rainfall on Saturday, combined with some short-term operational challenges, the plant was unable to cope adequately for a small period of time, which led to the short-term discoloration.

“We immediately took steps to rectify this situation whilst self-reporting this incident to Natural Resources Wales.

“As a co-operative that is committed to doing the right thing, we take these ongoing challenges very seriously, and continue to work with our technical partners to optimise the operation of the effluent treatment plant to reduce our impact.

“We will continue engaging with specialist advisers, regulators and the local community to understand what else we can do to play our part in improving the local river environment in the long term.”