By Tom Fox.
Featured image shows the pumping station pre-expansion. Credit Tom Fox.
2025 has been an amazing year for Arran’s natural environment: Sir David Attenborough releases his documentary Ocean, featuring Arran; COAST celebrates its 30th Anniversary of protecting our seas; the island is designated a UNESCO Global Geopark. What a moment for Arran Distilleries to choose to make a planning application to expand the size of their pumping station, which sits in the National Scenic Area, so they can continue to discharge highly polluting, untreated trade effluent directly into the waters of the Kilbrannan Sound ‘more efficiently’. This is a call for residents and visitors to examine the facts for themselves – and, if concerned, to object.
What’s happening?
The Isle of Arran Distilleries has submitted a planning proposal to expand its pumping station at Rubha Airigh Bheirg (OS Reference 886479), a wild coastal site between Catacol and Pirnmill in the National Scenic Area and UNESCO Global Geopark. The proposal is already drawing criticism from residents, swimmers, divers, and environmentalists, who warn of serious risks to the island’s landscape and marine ecosystems.
What’s at stake?
The existing pumping station and sea outfall discharges into the Kilbrannan Sound, the 22 km channel between Arran and Kintyre, rich in biodiversity and natural beauty. These waters are home to otters, porpoises, dolphins, minke whales, basking sharks, seabirds, and rare seagrass beds currently being studied by Project Seagrass in partnership with the COAST due to their importance for climate resilience..
Why is the pumping station expanding?
The original application to build a pumping station at Rubha Airigh Bheirg, in 2018, should never have been approved. Its expansion in 2025 is even harder to justify. Back in 2018, SEPA decided – bizarrely – that this site’s remoteness, the relatively modest discharge volume and absence of designated protected areas were sufficient reasons not to consult residents… And, allowed discharge of more than 13,000 gallons of untreated trade effluent per day. Even then, this location was in a designated National Scenic Area, a statutory designation that protects nationally and internationally significant landscapes from inappropriate development. Flash forward to 2025, it is still in a National Scenic Area and now in a UNESCO Global Geopark too. UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGG’s) are to quote: “areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development, involving local communities”.
One other thing has changed. In 2018 Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) granted ONE distillery a licence to discharge untreated trade effluent. Now there are TWO distilleries pumping waste from this site. Most residents are unaware that since the Lagg Distillery was built, waste is now transported via road tanker up from the southend of the island (not in the National Scenic Area) to be pumped out in the National Scenic Area. Madness.
What’s in the waste?
Distillery trade effluent is characterised by dark brown colour, acidic pH, high temperature, low dissolved oxygen (DO), high biochemical oxygen (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) which means it can deplete oxygen in the water and devastate marine life. It also contains a significant amount of phenols (7,202 mg/L), chlorides (7,997 mg/L), sulphates (1,100 mg/L), nitrates, phosphates (1,625 mg/L) and heavy metals and oils. Each day, road tankers arrive carrying this chemical cocktail. For context, a standard industrial tanker in the UK typically carries 4,000–6,600 gallons per load. These are discharged directly into the outfall, which empties into the Kilbrannan Sound.
What effect does this waste have?
The effluent discharged does not simply vanish at sea. Carried on the tides and currents, it flows down the Sound, along Arran’s west coast, affecting the habitats and ecosystems it reaches – and there is now some evidence it may be washing up on local beaches.
Under its licence to discharge, the distilleries are bound by Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) rules. The licence states that: “unless explicitly permitted, no discharge should cause pollution or have any significant adverse impact on the water environment.” No one can say with confidence that the discharges are not harming Arran’s marine ecosystems. Without rigorous, independent testing of water quality and accurate modelling of tidal flows, the scale and impact of the discharges on beaches and Arran’s west coast remain uncertain. This information has not been included in the current application, or made available to the public.
In short, the effluent’s dispersal in the Kilbrannan Sound, the legal obligations of the licence, and the health of the marine ecosystem are all directly connected. Unless these links are properly modelled, studied and monitored, Arran’s marine ecosystem could be damaged before residents even have proof of what is happening.
Saying One Thing and Doing Another.
On its website, Arran Distilleries states: “Both our distilleries embrace strong sustainability values. The water, the land, the climate, the community, are essential to who we are and the whisky we make. So, we wouldn’t risk them for the world.”
Right. Perhaps the Distilleries need to back up their words with actions. We all know that the Arran Distilleries are important to the island’s economy and tourism but this cannot be at the expense of the landscape and marine environment.
Other distilleries have been using sustainable ways of dealing with waste for almost 15 years – by turning their effluent into resources. Check out: Bruichladdich and Kilchoman (Isle of Islay) Ben Nevis Distillery, Speyside and Glenmorangie (Highlands). Modern best practice is to have no routine sea discharge, with waste reused as energy, fertiliser or co-products in a circular economy. Anyone interested in protecting our landscape and marine environment should help by urging Arran Distilleries to consider these alternatives. The Distilleries’ business model cannot be at the expense of nature, the tourism economy and public health.
What Can You Do?
Residents, tourists, and anyone who cares about Arran’s landscape, wildlife, and environment can object to the Rubha Airigh Bheirg pumping station expansion before 19th September 2025. The distillery’s planning application can be viewed, and commented on, via North Ayrshire Council’s planning portal under reference 25/00356/PP: North Ayrshire Planning Website: https://www.eplanning.north-ayrshire.gov.uk/OnlinePlanning/search.do?action=simple
Objections can also be sent by letter to Planning Services, Cunninghame House, Irvine KA12 8EE, quoting the application reference number reference 25/00356/PP. Letters should be dated and include your contact details (name, postal address and email address).
The deadline for public comments is 19th September 2025. The council is expected to decide by 13th October 2025.
In Ocean, Sir David stated: “if we save the sea, we save the world”. As a community we should be working together to do our bit and Save our Sound.