A landfill operator has been fined £22,000 for failing to correctly monitor methane and carbon dioxide at two closed waste sites in Leeds.

Mone Bros Civil Engineering Limited pleaded guilty at Leeds Magistrates' Court to 11 offences, eight in respect of Thorpe Quarry, in Thorpe Lane, and a further three relating to Apex Quarry at Butcher Hill in Horsforth.

The company, of Albert Road, Morley, Leeds, was fined £2,000 in respect of each offence and ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £3,045.24 and a victim surcharge of £15.

Craig Burman, for the Environment Agency, told the court the company holds an environmental permit, formerly a waste management licence, for the two former quarries.

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The permit requires boreholes at the sites are monitored for the presence of methane and carbon dioxide and the quarterly results are supplied to the Environment Agency.

The court heard the company had a history of non-compliance with these conditions. Tipping at Thorpe Quarry ended in 2001 and the company was warned about missing results in 2004, and again in 2007, after no results were supplied for 2006.

Tipping at Apex ceased in 2002 and the company was written to on a number of occasions about delays in installing monitoring vents. Mone said in November 2004 this would take place but the vent were not installed until May 2008.

In mitigation, the court heard that the risk of pollution was low and the magistrates gave Mone credit for an early guilty plea and co-operation with the Environment Agency investigation.

However, they said the fact permit breaches were continued and ongoing was an aggravating feature, as was the company’s failure to act quickly enough to rectify them.

(CD/JM)