Gaffe of the week: Chivas Brothers workers flush away tons of whisky

People make mistakes at work all the time, but few are as costly or as upsetting to the general, spirit-loving public as this one.

Workers at a Chivas Brothers plant accidentally flushed thousands of litres of whisky down the drain instead of the waste water they were supposed to flush. This would be considered much worse than knocking your friend's elbow and forcing him to spill his drink at the bar.

"We are currently investigating an accidental loss on the 26th of February at our Dumbarton (Scotland) site, where some spirit was released to the local water treatment plant," wrote representatives of the company in a statement, according to BBC.

Staff are thought to have dumped it while cleaning equipment.

[ Last week's gaffe: Man jailed after calling 911 nine times for cheeseburger ]

The company won't give exact figures, but reports on different outlets indicate anywhere from 5,000 to 18,000 litres went to waste. When The Spirit Business asked, Chivas Brothers representatives said it wasn't as much as 18,000. Even if it was only 5,000 litres, that's still more than 4,400 'forties.'

The smell was so strong sewage workers reported the odour, but none leaked into the river or the local water supply.

A Scottish Water spokesman told BBC, they were aware of the problem, visited the company and are working with them to ensure it doesn't happen again.

"Discharging large volumes of alcohol into the sewer can have an adverse impact on waste water treatment processes, particularly during dry, cold weather," said the spokesman. "We are continuing to closely monitor our Dumbarton waste water treatment works to ensure treatment has not been compromised."

That's interesting, because discharging large volumes of alcohol into my stomach usually has an awesome impact.

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Chivas Brothers is the Scotch whisky arm of French multinational group Pernod Ricard and produces Scotch brands Chivas Regal, The Glenlivet and Ballantine's. Ballantine's is the second biggest-selling brand of whisky in the world.

This wasn't the only unintentional loss of alcohol in Scotland over the past week. A beer truck toppled over between Glasgow and Edinburgh. However, not all the beer was damaged and some was taken by locals who were just being Good Samaritans and helped clear the street.

Truly a difficult few days for Scots and Scotch.

For dumping the expensive, valuable liquid down the drain instead of the waster, these unnamed Chivas Brothers employees are awarded the Gaffe of the Week, commemorated with this picture of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in butter.

Gaffe of the Week appears each Thursday
On Yahoo! Canada News.