A NORTH YORKSHIRE farming family must pay £24,000 for polluting 16 miles of the county's water courses including the River Foss and River Ouse.

Thousands of fish died when pig muck which was ten times more concentrated than human sewage poured into the Farlington Beck, York magistrates heard.

Simon Lloyd, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said that even tiny river life died as the slurry spread downstream into the River Foss and then the River Ouse. Agency officials had to dam the beck to prevent further pollution.

The clean-up operation included aeration and City of York Council releasing 35,000 cubic metres of water from an untainted reservoir to dilute the slurry and clean the river.

At the time, the agency warned residents to keep out of the River Foss.

JC Lister Ltd, of Ellenthorpe Lodge, Boroughbridge, pleaded guilty to polluting Farlington Beck and the River Foss. The company was fined £5,000 with £1,682.92 prosecution costs. It has already paid the agency's £17,351.62 clean-up costs.

"I was guilty. I have paid for it. I am sad I am here," David Lister said outside court.

With his brother and mother he runs the company.

They employ 12 people full-time and have farmed the area for more than 30 years.

Mr Lloyd said the company was spreading pig slurry over a field at Greenlands Farm, Farlington, on July 30, 2003, when the ground was so dry the muck collected in pools and flowed into the nearby watercourse.

For the company, Simon Catterall said: "It was a genuine isolated mistake against a background of many years of good husbandry."

The family had never been in trouble before, kept 3,000 pigs and managed 2,500 acres.

They had bought the Farlington field four years earlier and had not got proper details about its drainage system.

The company had now upgraded its drainage, assessed all its other fields for potential pollution of water courses, taken action to prevent it happening and got specialist equipment for slurry spreading.

The family had co-operated immediately and fully with the agency once the pollution occurred and sent machinery and staff to help with the clean-up.

Updated: 10:18 Friday, October 08, 2004