ROSS-SHIRE'S dirtiest and most polluting companies have been named by the national environment watchdog.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has listed the industrial plants which do not come up to scratch in its Compliance Assessment Scheme 2010.
Three Scottish Water water and sewage plants in Ross-shire have been graded poor or very poor in the SEPA assessment. Very poor is the lowest rating.
The sewage treatment works for Fortrose and Rosemarkie on the Black Isle received a grading of very poor.
SEPA noted: "The site had problems providing and maintaining the required flows to full treatment at various times throughout the year. This issue is being dealt with by on-going enforcement action."
At Newmore near Invergordon, the Scottish Water treatment works was rated poor by SEPA which said an "environment event" including unauthorised discharged had brought the plant's compliance score down.
And Scottish Water's sewage works at Tain was also graded poor. SEPA noted: "Poor result given due to failure of final effluent quality. Operator aware of issues and trying to improve treatment."
Private companies falling foul of the SEPA assessment included Muir of Ord firm Highland Clearance, which recycles metals and scrap cars. It was graded very poor.
SEPA said: "There are numerous breaches of both environmental limit conditions and management conditions."
However, SEPA said an action plan was in place and it was working with site management to improve the operation and management of the site.
Alness Autobreakers on the Evanton Industrial Estate, which also deals in scrap metal and cars, was graded poor.
Again, SEPA said an action plan was being prepared to address issues with the site and improvements would be required for the coming year.
The standards at Whyte and Mackay's Invergordon distillery were judged to be "broadly compliant" for controlled activity regulations but excellent for pollution prevention and control.
Invergordon's Balcas wood pellet and biomass plant, which had earlier been the source of complaints about noise pollution from local residents, was graded "good".
Among the Ross-shire companies gaining the top rating, "excellent", were ILM Highland in Alness; Pat Munro at Caplich Quarry, Alness; Isleburn Invergordon; The Service Base, Invergordon; Skretting, Invergordon; Munro Sawmills, Dingwall; Tesco, Dingwall; and Morefield Quarry, Ullapool, as well as several Scottish Water plants.
Calum MacDonald, SEPA's director of operations, said: "The Compliance Assessment Scheme results are important to us, as they identify where resource needs to be focussed to help companies achieve a satisfactory level of environmental protection.
"This assessment tool is part of SEPA's better regulation agenda, which has identified that improvements to our approach in assessing compliance with licences, permits and authorisations will lead to more effective, transparent and efficient regulation.
"Although SEPA is committed to helping operators to meet their environmental responsibilities, we will not shy away from taking appropriate enforcement action in relation to sites which consistently fail to meet our standards."
Rob Mustard, Scottish Water's general manager for wastewater, said: "The sites identified in the SEPA report as requiring action mostly relate to management conditions which have never been measured before and have no environmental impact.
"Scotland's environment has benefited massively from our work. The quality of wastewater effluent in Scotland is the highest it has ever been and continues to improve."
