Trump, who arrived in the UK this week for his second official state visit, opened a new course at the Trump International Golf Links luxury resort on the Aberdeenshire coast during a trip to Scotland in July. The course was billed as "one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable courses ever built".
Samples of sewage discharges from the clubhouse's waste water system exceeded limits on contaminants in three of the last seven years, data from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), released to Unearthed through freedom of information law, shows.
Samples were recorded as being "non-compliant" nine times in 2019, four times in 2024 and once in the first half of this year. No data is available for 2020, 2021 or 2022, due to a cyber attack. No breaches were recorded in 2023. There is no evidence that these incidents caused environmental harm.
"From the outset, SEPA has insisted on a particularly intense level of monitoring of waste water management at the site," Sarah Malone, executive vice president of Trump International, Scotland, told Unearthed. "Any exceedances have been very rare," she added, pointing out that SEPA has repeatedly renewed the clubhouse's licence to operate a private waste water system.
This system treats effluent before releasing it into the ground through perforated pipes on raised gravel beds. Sampling takes place at a point located after the treatment works, but before the gravel beds.