A BLACK discharge that seeped onto the street outside a Widnes factory has landed the company a £7,000 fine.

Colloids Limited was also ordered to pay more than £31,000 in costs by Runcorn magistrates after it admitted polluting a surface water drain in Dennis Road last Wednesday.

The court heard how Simon Crozier, an Environment Agency officer, had discovered the spillage as he drove past the buildings on July 24 last year.

Julie Goulbourne, who prosecuted for the agency, told the court that further investigations showed it entered a highway gully on the road and a second gully inside the gates of the company's premises.

Mr Crozier later took a sample of the discharge, the source of which, Ms Goulbourne explained, was traced to a scrubber unit on the factory site.

After contacting Halton Council to check where the road gully led, Mr Crozier used dye tracing to show a link between the discharge entering the gully near the entrance of Colloids and the surface water drain in Dennis Road.

The gully on Colloids eventually reaches a public surface water sewer and the drain in Dennis Road empties into the River Mersey.

Magistrates heard the results of the sample also proved the discharge was of a "highly polluting nature" as there were high levels of biochemical oxygen demand and suspended solids.

It was said the discharge could reduce oxygen levels in the watercourse, thereby causing harm to fish and other aquatic life.

The company chose not to comment when contacted by the World.