The Mill Building at the Hiram Walker/Allied Distillers which was demolished when Chivas took over the distillery in Dumbarton.
By Bill Heaney
Waste from the Scotch whisky industry in Dumbarton may have been polluting the rivers Clyde and Leven going back to 1938 when the HIram Walker distillery – the biggest in Scotland – was built in Castle Street near the town centre.
Smaller distilleries and whisky firms which have sprung up in West Dunbartonshire may too have been polluting rivers and streams near Loch Lomond and Helensburgh as waste was pumped from Alexandria to the Scottish Water sewage plant at Ardoch on the Clyde shore near Havoc.
Other water courses may also have been polluted by the Littlemill Distillery at Bowling and the Auchentoshan Distillery in Dalmuir.
Investigative journalist Rob Edwards has revealed in The Ferret that intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by the multinational whisky industry forced the Scottish Government’s green watchdog to back down on plans to toughen pollution controls.
Over 150 files released under freedom of information law show that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) shelved a scheme to improve the regulation of up to 20 whisky waste plants following 18 months of sustained pressure from big distillers.
The files include a suggestion that Sepa had “felt the need to roll over” whenever it had been challenged by the industry. Negotiations about pollution controls had been helped by “a significant presence of ex-Sepa staff” working for whisky firms, one company manager said.
Campaigners accused Sepa of “regulatory capture” by giving in to whisky industry complaints and criticised the “revolving doors” enabling the industry to employ ex-Sepa experts. One previous Sepa chief executive warned that “the journey of being leant on risks ending in simple corruption”.
Sepa defended its role regulating the environment and said it protected communities “based on science, evidence and law”. The whisky industry claimed its dialogue with Sepa ensured that policy changes were “environmentally and commercially sound”.
The First Minister, John Swinney, flew to Washington DC on 8 September with a delegation from the Scottish whisky industry to try and persuade the Trump administration to cut tariffs on spirits.
Whisky waste plants ‘can cause pollution’
According to the files released by Sepa, from early 2024 it had a clear intention to remove an exemption it gave to distillery waste plants in 2013. This enabled the industry’s growing number of waste treatment plants to avoid pollution rules.
The plants use a technology known as anaerobic digestion, which has expanded greatly in Scotland since 2000. Similar to composting, but without using oxygen, waste materials rot to produce biogas for energy and fertilisers for farming.
Sepa pointed out that the plants can result in “significant pollution” killing river and sea life. It had seen “several serious environmental events” which “have caused significant impacts to watercourses, mostly due to poor design, construction and management.”
Sepa’s aim was to ensure a “level playing field”, and bring the rules applying to whisky waste plants in line with those which apply to the brewing and dairy industries. It insisted that residues from distilleries were waste, not “by-products” as the industry claimed.
But in a series of private emails, briefings and meetings in 2024 and 2025, the industry strenuously objected. It complained about the costs of meeting tougher pollution controls, particularly for plants which discharge waste to sea via long pipes, and argued that anaerobic digestion helped cut climate pollution.
The Chivas Brothers plant at Kilmalid in Dumbarton where 1000 people are employed in the Scotch Whisky industry. Pictures by Bill Heaney
In November 2024 an unnamed manager from the French drinks firm, Pernod Ricard, which owns Chivas Brothers in Dumbarton, pictured above, emailed Sepa. She or he were concerned that Sepa’s proposals were “driven by an individual perspective, ideology or an agenda to increase regulated site numbers” – but hoped this was a “miscommunication”.
Professor Andrew Watterson, an expert on environmental regulation from the University of Stirling, said the files released by Sepa showed a “blatant attempt to pressure regulators to back off enforcement on significant pollution problems”.
He told The Ferret: “It’s very difficult not to draw the conclusion from evidence available that some companies in the whisky industry are engaged in regulatory capture to soften pollution controls.
“This looks to be compounded by more revolving doors involving regulatory staff moving into posts in industry which, although perfectly legal, is a bad look and must damage public confidence in the regulatory process.”
Professor Campbell Gemmell, who was Sepa’s chief executive between 2003 and 2012, said the long delay in introducing pollution controls for whisky waste plants was “deeply concerning”. He warned that the risks of regulatory capture were real.
“If pressure is being applied to go soft on an operator, however important they may be, the risk to good regulation, to the environment and to basic ethical standards may take time to crystallise but is real and serious,” said Gemmell. “The journey – of being leant on – risks ending in simple corruption.”
The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), which represents the big distillers, warned in February 2025 that Sepa’s pollution controls would “threaten the closure” of up to 20 anaerobic digestion plants serving most of the industry. This could have “a domino effect of ceasing distillery production for over 60 single malt scotch whisky sites”, it said.
The full, exclusive story on this was published by The Ferret investigative journal today (Monday) and is available on their website now.
We are a group of Campaigners from all over renfrewshire coming together over the flawed processes impacting on mental health, decreased equity on homes and environmental impacts on our doorstep. We by chance all dealt with same agencies who silid us back to decisions of a council who have evidenced they do not have the knowledge training or professional capacity to make decision. During all stages of plannings no voices were heard despite policies and legislation. It appears council and developers working in tandem and developers take lead role. From validation of incorrect paperwork, lack of capacity to visit sites, vital assessments appear forgotten. Contact Aslawn24@outlook.com