A mining firm will pay £215,000 to a national park authority after a pollution incident led to the deaths of almost 700 fish in a North Yorkshire river.
Cleveland Potash Limited, which operates a mine at Saltburn, breached environmental permits in June 2022 when a discharge of mine brine entered Easington Beck and Staithes Beck via Boulby Gill.
The incident resulted in the deaths of 526 brown trout, 133 stone loach, and 17 critically endangered eels.
The mine brine, which is highly salty and noxious to native plants and freshwater animals, is normally discharged at a specified discharge point at sea.
During maintenance on the sea outfall pipe, the brine was diverted to an above-ground storage tank.
The Environment Agency found there was no written procedure for managing the diversion, and after work was completed, staff failed to redirect the flow back to the sea pipe.
This led to the tank overflowing and the brine running down a grass bank into Boulby Gill.
Martin Christmas, area environment manager at the Environment Agency, said: "When companies fall short of their environmental obligations, we will take action.
"Enforcement undertakings are an effective tool to ensure that money goes directly into the local environment, delivering improvements for wildlife and communities.
"These four cases show that whether the harm comes from industry, construction or energy facilities, we will hold those responsible to account."
Cleveland Potash will pay £215,000 to the North York Moors National Park Authority.
The payment will fund the removal of a weir to restore fish migration in the area.
The company has also taken further action to prevent similar incidents.
It has isolated the storage tank from the brine system, decommissioned and demolished the tank at a cost of £250,000, and carried out £50,000 of landscaping work, including creating a wildflower meadow.
Further measures include twice-yearly ecological monitoring of the watercourse, fish migration studies, and planting more than 10,000 trees around the mine.
The company has also launched a volunteering scheme for environmental projects in the local area.
The payment is the largest of four enforcement undertakings accepted by the Environment Agency, totalling nearly £470,000.
Each case involved breaches of environmental permits in Yorkshire.
Balfour Beatty Group Limited will contribute £200,000 to the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust after unauthorised discharges of silt-contaminated water from its East Leeds Orbital Route construction site in 2020.
Energy Works (Hull) Limited will pay £30,000 to three local charities after failing to comply with its fire protection plan at its Cleveland Street plant in Hull.
GWE Biogas Limited will contribute £22,000 to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust following unauthorised operation of an anaerobic digester tank at its Sandhill Biogas Plant in Kirkburn, Driffield in August 2023.
Under an enforcement undertaking, companies must take steps to repair the damage, prevent recurrence, and fund environmental improvements.
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The Environment Agency continues to prosecute the most serious environmental offences where there is evidence of high culpability and significant harm.
Cleveland Potash formerly mined potash at Saltburn but now extracts polyhalite, a mineral used as an agricultural fertiliser.
Cleveland Potash and the other companies involved will also cover the Environment Agency's investigation costs.
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