Leeds house building firm handed £120k fine over construction pollution

Harron Homes Limited, the Leeds-based house building company, has been fined £120k for polluting a watercourse from a construction site in Huddersfield.

The firm was sentenced on 20th November at Leeds Magistrates’ Court after admitting one charge of causing illegal discharges from its Farriers Croft estate in 2015.

The Environment Agency were called in to investigate reports of contaminated run-off which was entering a tributary of Grimescar Dyke.

Rosalind Emsley-Smith, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that an officer visited the site on 20th November 2015 and saw polluted water flowing out of the entrance of the construction site.

Harron Homes was also pumping silt contaminated water from site excavations which also entered the watercourse.

Harron Homes previously attempted to control the silt run-off by setting up settlement tanks. However, further incidents of pollution were reported in November and December 2015 and subsequent inspections revealed that this system was unsuccessful. Silty water was found to be discharging, resulting in further pollution.

Samples taken from the discharges showed that silty water was having a significant impact on the water quality in the watercourse up to three kilometres further downstream. Some samples showed there to be nearly 35,000 milligrams of suspended solids per litre of water.

Mark West, environment management team leader at the Environment Agency, said: “These pollution incidents had a significant impact on the water environment over a number of weeks, and were entirely avoidable. In West Yorkshire there has been a worrying increase in the number of pollutions incidents reported to us that on investigation are attributable to the construction sector.

“Construction companies should consider the potential environmental impact of developments they undertake at the initial planning stage and must adhere to environmental permitting rules and invest in appropriate management systems to prevent their activities from affecting the local environment.

“If anyone spots pollution of this kind, they are urged to contact the Environment Agency’s incident hotline on 0800 807060 so we can investigate.”

In mitigation, Harron Homes told the court that it had now put procedures in place to prevent future pollution incidents.

In addition to the fine, the company was ordered to pay £8,706.71 in legal costs and a £120 victim surcharge.