A house building company has been prosecuted after pollution from a construction site entered into a watercourse in Huddersfield.

Harron Homes admitted to one charge of causing illegal discharges from its Farriers Croft estate in 2015 at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 20 November. It has been fined £120,000 with more than £8,706 in costs and a victim surcharge of £120.

The Leeds-based firm was prosecuted by the Environment Agency (EA) after it investigated reports of contaminated run-off entering a tributary of Grimescar Dyke.

On 20 November 2015, an EA officer visited the construction site and saw polluted water flowing out of its entrance. The company was also pumping silt contaminated water from site excavations which also entered the watercourse.

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Following the visit, Homes attempted to control the silt run-off by setting up settlement tanks. However further incidents of pollution were reported in November and December 2015, with subsequent inspections revealing the settlement tanks system was inadequate. Silty water was found to be discharging, resulting in further pollution.

Samples taken from the discharges showed that they were having a significant impact on the water quality in the watercourse up to three kilometres further downstream. Some samples revealed there to be nearly 35,000 milligrams of suspended solids per litre of water, whereas a healthy watercourse is expected to have a concentration lower than 30 milligrams per litre.

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

Mark West, environment team leader at the EA, 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."

(LM/MH)